note 13058 deleted from ref.image by tularis

Note Submitter: npdavis at hotmail dot com ---- I build menus using image functions. I noticed that even if you preload the images, some do not always load. In addition the image generation puts a load on the server... the answer? Cache Control headers. These headers will cause IE and Netscape to load all images correctly and also force the proxys and web caches to cache them, allowing your pages to render correctly, AND save you lots of cycles: ) These headers tell both the browser and the ISP caches/proxys to cache the images. Here is the code: Header ("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s",mktime (0,0,0,1,1,2000)) . " GMT"); // Date in the past Header ("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 2040 05:00:00 GMT"); // In other words... never expire the image Header ("Cache-Control: max-age=10000000, s-maxage=1000000, proxy-revalidate, must-revalidate");//Cache-Control header is ESSENTIAL for forcing Netscape to load all images!... and telling the ISP caches to do the same in this case cache for 1 million seconds. These headers may or may not be redundant... any input is welcome. In addition, it is essential for proxys and ISP caches that your re-used images have the same url... IE create a generic image creation script, and feed it parameters. This way your http://yoursite/imagegen.php?text=home&h=40&w=150&fontsize=13 Home link image has the same url on all of your pages... This will make your images more proxy/cacheserver cache AND browser cache friendly. thx, Neil