View updates and caching

There are a number of factors that affect whether you or others can view changes to content or new content. This article gives an overview of these factors as well as a brief explanation of caching. The article also includes some checks in case you cannot see the changes.

Overview

As an editor, when you view a web page in a browser you will see the changes that you have made while in 'Safe Edit' mode but haven't yet been made 'Live'. You can also see items still 'Under Construction'. This is because you are logged into the system. Even if you just log in to read FedNews items or other internal pages, the system knows you are an editor and will make those things visible.

Sometimes the changes you make may not be visible to you due to caching on your browser. For instructions on clearing your browser cache, contact the ITS Service Desk.

If you want to see if your changes are visible to others you can either:

  1. log out of CMS; or
  2. open a different browser

(refer Viewing publicly available content changes below for instructions)

When you make changes to an asset or create a new asset, changes may not be publicly visible for up to 24 hours. This is due to the system caching which holds onto old versions of pages to make page loading quicker for our users.

Urgent changes

If you need your changes to be made available to the public immediately you can follow this 3-step process. It is important you follow all three steps, even if you see the updated content on the page after the completing the first step.

  1. In your web browser, add '/_recache' to the end of the web address, then select 'Enter'. For example, if you made changes to federation.edu.au/research, the web address would be federation.edu.au/research/_recache
  2. Remove the '/_recache' from the web address and select 'Enter'.
  3. Hold down 'Ctrl' and select 'F5'.

You should be able to see the changes you made displaying on the page.

What is caching?

Caching is the temporary storage of web pages. Caching reduces the time it takes to load a page because it stores a copy on your computer or on a local server. There are two types of caching you need to be aware of with our website – 'browser caching' and 'Matrix caching'.

'Browser caching' is where your browser stores a version of web pages you have visited, just for you. The browser cache will check to make sure that the page you are looking at is current on each start up.

This cache is especially useful when users hit the "back" button or click a link to see a page they've just looked at. Also, if you use the same navigation images throughout your site, they'll be served from browsers' caches almost instantaneously.

Sometimes the browser cache needs to be manually refreshed.

'Matrix caching' is similar to browser caching but a copy is stored on the server for all users to access rather than on individual computers. When a page is first viewed a copy is stored (cached) for 24 hours so the page will load quicker for other visitors within that 24 hour period.

Viewing publicly available content changes

Option 1 – Log out of CMS

  1. Click the 'View User Details and/or Exit Edit Mode' person icon in the top right side of the menu.
  2. Click 'Logout'.
  3. This will return you to a normal web page and you can see the page as a normal user.

Option 2 – Open a different browser

If you view your page in a different tab, the browser still recognises you as being logged in. To view what a normal user would see, you need to open a different browser.

So if you are editing in Firefox, open Internet Explorer (IE) and view the page in there, but do not log in to any internal areas. As soon as you log in it recognises you as an editor and you will be able to see items under construction or changes that have been made in 'Safe Edit' but are not yet live.

Troubleshooting

If you are still unable to see the changes after you have logged out or viewed in a different browser, go through the following check list:

  • Refresh the browser (CTRL-F5)
  • Close and then restart your browser
  • Make sure you have changed the asset status to 'Live' (green)
  • Clear the browser cache (contact the ITS Service Desk for instructions specific to your browser) and then try again
  • Wait 30 minutes and then refresh your browser again
  • If you still cannot see the changes and you have followed all these steps, you can either wait 24 hours after you made the changes or contact the ITS Service Desk.