Date of web pages?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

A very basic question, but one that continues to bug me:
How can/why can't one tell the age of a web page, or even, apparently
assemble them in date order when searching?

When one right clicks for properties all one gets is the current date, so
how can one tell if a page is current and up to date?

Regards,

S
 
Hi spamlet,

Web pages are either static or active.

Static web pages are saved to the hard disk of the web server and have a
modified date the same as the file save date.

Active server pages are created on the fly in the memory of the web server
and are pushed out to the client with the modified date of the clock on the
server.

Regards.
 
Thanks very much for the info Rob, but that still leaves me unclear as to
how I can actually check the dates when looking at a page?

I'm sorry if this sounds a little lame :-( but I'm not very up on how this
all works.

Do you mean that the dates I am getting when I right click for properties,
that look like they must be my own download dates, are actually created
specially for me by the site's server when I download them: but that when
the pages are of the static kind, I should see an older date?

Cheers,

S
 
Yes, dynamic page are created in the servers memory when a client (you)
request them from your browser. Developers can use javascript to set the
ModifiedDate to a static value, but most don't.

This all happens in the background and users can't alter it.

There are settings in your Temporary Internet Files section of Internet
Options that determines if IE will check for later versions. When you load a
web page it is copied from the server to your Internet cache. IE compares
the date of the file in your cache with the date on the server from where
the page came from and decides if you have the latest copy.

Regards.
 
Right, that clears it up.

It's a shame that we can get timing down to fractions of microseconds these
days, but seem to have no way of knowing if the bulk of what we read on the
web is still relevant though.

Very considerate of you to take the time to explain.

Thanks Rob

Cheers,

S
 
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Regards.
 
Yes, I've got that in my favourites, but haven't looked at it lately.
(Wikipedia and Google's 'define:' function seem to fulfil most of my
encyclopaedic needs these days.)

And, as our Bosch cooker has finally decided to stop heating up beyond 100
deg at all, I guess it's a timely reminder for me to have another look!

Cheers,

S
 
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