Reflect changes by not having to clear cookies or refresh pages on production after upgrade

Schatak

We are getting complaints from the customer that they have to keep on refresh (Ctrl+F5) on the page or sometimes clear the cookies to reflect the changes done on upgrade. Especially, when we upload CSS/JS files or Images sometimes. To overcome this situation, I did some research and found one solution to append Query string with the name of image or CSS files. But it does not seem to be a coherent solution. Then I used NuGet packages for Bundle. It seems to be the solution but I have another issue like I am calling individual CSS file for each page (page specific) and to make a bundle for the single file is not the good idea. What should i follow as good approach to overcome this situation where changes can reflect on the server after uploading CSS/Images or JS files.

F ES Sitecore

You've already mentioned it, a querystring variable on the css\js paths.

Richard Deeming

Mads Kristensen wrote a blog post explaining how to do this back in 2014: Cache busting in ASP.NET[^] However, I'd be inclined to use the query-string rather than a fake path. It's a fairly simple change:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Caching;
using System.Web.Hosting;

public class Fingerprint
{
public static string Tag(string rootRelativePath)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(rootRelativePath)) return string.Empty;

    if (rootRelativePath\[0\] != '~')
    {
        rootRelativePath = "~" + rootRelativePath;
    }
    
    string result = HttpRuntime.Cache\[rootRelativePath\] as string;
    if (result == null) 
    {
        string absolute = HostingEnvironment.MapPath(rootRelativePath);
        DateTime date = File.GetLastWriteTime(absolute); 
        result = rootRelativePath + "?v=" + date.Ticks;
        HttpRuntime.Cache.Insert(rootRelativePath, result, new CacheDependency(absolute)); 
    }
    
    return result; 
}

}

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

Schatak

Should I go with this option only?

F ES Sitecore

Most people do.

Schatak

Okay, I will opt the same. Thanks

Schatak

Wasn't there some other setting that automatically forces updates the CSS?

Richard Deeming

Only if you disable caching on the files, which will degrade the performance of your site.

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer