I've been trying to get my head around the whole issue of browser history Vs caching and RFC2616 13.13
Does this section of the RFC mean that if a user goes "Back" in the browser, for example, it should always display the page from it's local storage, ignoring any cache directives, unless the user has configured it otherwise?
So browsers that reload the page when navigating the history, even if caching directives are instructing it do so, are not complying with the specification? And the spec is saying this is bad because "this will tend to force service authors to avoid using HTTP expiration controls and cache controls when they would otherwise like to."
Also, even though a directive may instruct the broswer not to cache, e.g. using Cache-Control: no-store
, it can/should store it in it's history cache?
From what I've read, it seems that most browsers violate the standard, apart from Opera. Is this because the security concerns around the re-display of pages with sensitive data from history are seen as more important than the issue the standard talks about?
I'd be grateful if anyone is able shed some light/clarification on this area, thanks.