Stop browser caching content

Rails
1

I have a small application that serves documents (typically PDF and
word). I’m using the file_column plug-in to update and manage the
documents. I’m serving the documents via Mongrel (this is a small
intranet application).

I have one main problem: users’ browsers are caching the documents, and
therefore new revisions of documents are not being downloaded by
everyone. I want to send an HTTP header Cache-Control statement limiting
the life of the documents to tens of minutes. Can I do this within my
Rails application?

If not, I’ll serve the documents via another server where I can set the
cache life at the folder level. However, it would be easier to manage
the system if the setting could be made within the Rails app.

2

If you’re serving the document from an action, you can add any header
you want by putting it in the headers[] hash:

class MyController < ActionController::Base
def file
headers[‘Cache-Control’] = ‘no-cache’
headers[‘Pragma’] = ‘no-cache’
# send file
end
end

On Apr 26, 6:04 pm, Rob N. [email protected]

3

Eden Li wrote:

If you’re serving the document from an action, you can add any header
you want by putting it in the headers[] hash:

class MyController < ActionController::Base
def file
headers[‘Cache-Control’] = ‘no-cache’
headers[‘Pragma’] = ‘no-cache’
# send file
end
end

On Apr 26, 6:04 pm, Rob N. [email protected]

Excellent. Just the information I was after. Thank you.