26760 - Tables should be downloaded from server only if they change

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Form Manager, defect, P3)

Description

[Suresh Duddi (gone)]

We should be using the http-if-modified request to check if the tables have 
changed since the last time we downloaded them. This will reduce the number of 
times we will be downloading the wallet tables.

Comment 1

[Stephen P. Morse]

Fixed thanks to Andreas.  Changes are in wallet.cpp.

Comment 2

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

steve, what's a good way for me to verify this? ie, a good form within netcenter
to use?

Comment 3

[Stephen P. Morse]

Testing this is a bit tricky.  It has nothing to do with netcenter forms 
however.

The idea is that the tables that are stored on the server (and it's not 
netcenter) have a datestamp.  Also the last files that you downloaded have a 
datestamp as well.  If your files are older than the ones on the server, the 
download should occur and otherwise it shouldn't.

So to test this out, you need to fudge the date on your local tables.  The 
tables are in your profile and have the extension .tbl.  In fact, I believe the 
only one that gets downloaded is all.tbl.  So go to your all.tbl and change the 
date to sometime in January 2000.  Bring up the browser and do some function 
that requires the tables (i.e., try to prefill a form).  Then go look at the 
datestamp of your all.tbl file.  It should have gotten changed to today's date.  
That's because the datestamp of the all.tbl file on the server happens to be Feb 
12, 2000 (or maybe it's March 12 -- I don't recall).

Next change your all.tbl to some date in April 2000.  Repeat above test.  Now 
the all.js file should not get updated.

Final point -- how to change the date on your local file.  Simple -- change the 
date on your computer and then "touch" the local file.  Touch is a unix program 
and we also have versions of it that run under DOS.  The purpose of touch is to 
change the date on the file to the current date.  If you don't have "touch", you 
can accomplish the same effect by bringing up the all.tbl file with any editor 
and then resaving it.

Comment 4

[Stephen P. Morse]

I said something stupid above, so let me try again.

The determination of whether the tables on the server are newer than the tables 
on the hard disk is not made by checking the datestamp of the file on the disk.  
Instead we check a datestamp that we stored in the prefs file.  That pref is 
called wallet.lastModified.  So to change the date of the local file, go to the 
prefs.js file and change the value of wallet.lastModified.  Forget everything I 
said about using the unix "touch" facility or of changing the date on your pc.

Comment 5

[leger]

Adding netcenter keyword.

Comment 6

[Stephen P. Morse]

Tables are not coming from netscenter (that was how we initially thought it 
would work) but instead are coming from a server as determined by a pref 
setting.  The default is a server at mozilla.org.  Changing the summary to 
reflect that.  And the bad summary line was probably what caused Jan to think 
this was a netcenter problem when she added the netcenter keyword, so I am 
removing that as well.

Comment 7

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

rubberstamp vfry.