Hi Nathan, Have you looked at the HTML5 AppCache? It operates in a manner similar to what you're describing.
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/offline.html That said, most people seem to agree that AppCache is somewhat problematic; although some do use it, it's fairly fussy to work with, and adoption hasn't been wide. Also, note that it creates a cache that's separate to the "normal" HTTP cache. If you want to propose this particular mechanism, I'd recommend talking to the WHAT WG <http://www.whatwg.org/> and making sure that the HTTPBIS WG <http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/wiki> is looped in; because it involves both HTML and HTTP caching, it touches both. However, I'd observe that what you're *really* trying to do is to overcome the limitations of HTTP's current use of TCP, and that's what we're trying to do with HTTP2 in HTTPBIS; if you wait a bit, this shouldn't be necessary. Regards, On 05/01/2013, at 9:18 AM, Nathan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, this is my first post so forgive me if I posted in the wrong spot. > > I am contemplating writing an RFC on an HTML tag to be placed in the <head> > of a webpage which gives the browser instructions on a single location were > the page may obtain bulk cache information from the server instead of having > each time a new cache-able element is requested having the browser create a > new http request to the server to only have the server respond with a 304 Not > Modified. > > I am not going into detail but a quick over view would look something like > (taken from google.com homepage's cache-able files): > <head> > ... > <cache src="/script-to-handle-bulk-cache-checking"> > <file href="images/srpr/logo3w.png" /> > <file > href="xjs/_/js/s/c,sb,cr,vm,cdos,jsa,sf,tbpr,tbui,rsn,ob,mb,lc,hv,cfm,klc,kat,aut,esp,erh,bihu,amcl,kp,lu,m,rtis,shb,sfa,hsm,j,p,pcc,csi/rt=j/ver=K-W_gw26Qd4.en_US./d=1/sv=1/rs=AItRSTP1F4RezC8aHlgXoNQaBhX3N9n9sQ" > /> > <file href="extern_chrome/edf8435073bcf94.js" /> > <file > href="xjs/_/js/s/sy10,gf,sy45,sy46,sy81,sy44,sy39,sy82,sy8,sy34,sy50,sy48,sy80,sy99,sy105,sy108,sy9,sy15,mbtt,ssi,ifl/rt=j/ver=K-W_gw26Qd4.en_US./d=0/sv=1/rs=AItRSTP1F4RezC8aHlgXoNQaBhX3N9n9sQ" > /> > <file href="textinputassistant/tia.png" /> > <file href="images/nav_logo114.png" /> > </cache> > ... > </head> > > The browser would then block until it cross references it's own cache with > the listed files and (if > 1) send a request to the location specified in the > "src" attribute in the "cache" tag with the cross referenced files list and > the associated "if-modified-since" date of each file. The server would then > respond telling the browser to use the cache for the files that can be used > for cache. Any other files need to be loaded load like normal. > > The idea would be to have a page with many images, javascript, css, exc... to > do a single request in the hopes that the it could save any of those > cache-able files from needing their own request to the server to see if they > have been modified. > > If there is already an RFC for this a link to it would be appreciated as I > looked for one and came up with only http header cache controls which does > not work the same way. > > Thank you, > -Nathan Bruer -- Mark Nottingham http://www.mnot.net/
