Disabling cache for better performance?

Jun 29, 2012

joe smith
By joe smith

Hi All,

One of the biggest issues our users have is that their Adobe Flash Player will often freeze in the middle of a slide.  The only way we've found to get them past the point where they're stuck is to have them clear their browser's cache and then resume the presentation again.  As you can imagine, for someone who is experiencing lots of freezing, this can become very frustrating. 

I recently was thinking about advising some of our users to completely disable caching while taking the course.  My thought was that they could maybe then get past the sticking point simply by playing the slide from the beginning again.

Any thoughts about this approach of disabling cache for better performance?  Or may actual experience doing it?

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

6 Replies
Guy Greenbaum
almost 12 years ago07/08/12 at 10:29 pm (UTC)

Steven,

Unless you're in a tightly controlled corporate environment, I advise strongly against defeating the browser's cache for many technical reasons, but most importantly, it interrupts learning and it's a temporary workaround at best.  

Is your course published in Storyline? You mention the freeze happens in "the middle of the slide" - can you describe that further?  If the problem is not consistent or the cause is not obvious (video, web object, quizmaker, etc.), you can try monitoring the browser's behind-the-scenes activity with a browser plug-in such as firebug.

Other diagnostic issues to look at include:

* Are you seeing the freeze happening on different or the same type of setup (browser/OS/computer/connection)?  

* Are there any special IT/infrastructure issues such as a firewall or other type of security layer?

Hope this helps.

Guy

joe smith
almost 12 years ago07/10/12 at 11:24 am (UTC)

Hi Guy,

Thanks for the feedback.  I agree with you that it's not preferable to disable cache.  However, the problem some people experience with Adobe Flash Player freezing is epidemic.  My end users are individuals so their operating environments are many and varied. 

I'll probably abandon the idea of having them disable cache . . it was just a thought.  I'll just be glad when HTML5 is a little more mature and we can design courses to use just HTML5 and not even have to think about use buddy Adobe Flash Player.

Thanks again!

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.