Question

I’m using the app engine locally, and sometimes the JS files are being cached between page refreshes, and it drives me crazy because I don’t know if there’s a bug in the javascript code I’m trying to write, or if the cache is acting up.

How do I completely disable cache for *.js files? Or maybe the question is, how to have it be smart, like based on last-modified date.

Thanks!

UPDATE-
So it turns out Chrome Dev (for mac at least) has caching issues, going back to Chrome Beta fixes all this. The answers have still been helpful though, thanks

Answer 1

Based on the docs, you can specify an app-wide cache expiration duration:

Unless told otherwise, web browsers retain files they load from a website for a limited period of time. You can define a global default cache period for all static file handlers for an application by including the default_expiration element, a top-level element. You can also configure a cache duration for specific static file handler. (Script handlers can set cache durations by returning the appropriate HTTP headers to the browser.)

default_expiration

The length of time a static file served by a static file handler ought to be cached in the user’s browser, if the handler does not specify its own expiration. The value is a string of numbers and units, separated by spaces, where units can be d for days, h for hours, m for minutes, and s for seconds. For example, "4d 5h" sets cache expiration to 4 days and 5 hours after the file is first loaded by the browser.

default_expiration is optional. If omitted, the default behavior is to allow the browser to determine its own cache duration.

…and if you want to specify the expiration on a directory-by-directory basis:

expiration

The length of time a static file served by this handler ought to be cached in the user’s browser. The value is a string of numbers and units, separated by spaces, where units can be d for days, h for hours, m for minutes, and s for seconds. For example, "4d 5h" sets cache expiration to 4 days and 5 hours after the file is first loaded by the browser.

Try setting them to 0d0h or 1s and see if it disables caching entirely.