Prevent application cache from being discarded after cache manifest returns 404

Question

I've created a web app and placed it on our intranet web server. If an iPad loads the app while on the intranet network, the app works. If I turn on airplane mode, the app works in offline mode.

However, I believe (and I don't have a debugger to test), if the iPad then connects to the internet, the app tries to access the cache manifest as it sees it is connected to a network, but the manifest request returns a 404 as it isn't on the intranet. The appcache is then discarded and the application stops functioning.

If what I'm saying is correct, is there some way to mitigate the appcache from being discarded when the manifest returns a 404?

Thanks,

Chris

Answer 1

I am, fortunately, completely incorrect. You can indeed move from different network environments and the app will continue to function.

My issue was that my web framework will publish the minified version of some javascript files in Production mode, which I didn't include in my cache manifest.

What threw me is that Chrome would throw an error when it can't reach the manifest, which is apparently entirely expected in this case. Given that much of the material on the web points to the appcache being discarded if an error occurs during the cache loading process, I had thought this was what was happening. Forutnately, this particular error doesn't impact offline mode.