Suppressing the "Page is expired" warning for an uncacheable page

[jhsachs]

This is not really a client-side question, but it concerns HTTP, not HTML, so I think this is the best place for it.

 

When the user clicks the Back button to reload an uncacheable page, is there a way to make the browser reload the page without displaying the "Page is expired" warning first?

 

Background: my server-side code needs to have control over what happens when the user clicks the Back button, so the "Page is expired" warning is meaningless; there's no reason for the user ever to not reload the expired page. Thus the warning just makes the UI more difficult to use!

 

Here's an example of how the problem comes up.

 

The user's workflow normally goes from page A to B to C. The server side code enforces this. For example, if the user tries to go back from C to B, the server must decide whether to say "you can't do that" and reload C, or allow B to reload normally. or allow B to reload but omit some of the operations it normally performs. Therefore, B must be non-cacheable.

 

In this case the user is doing something "wrong," even if the server decides to allow it; the "Page is expired" message is unnecessary but tolerable.

 

But if the user goes from B to a Help page, then clicks the Back button to return to B, the operation is considered perfectly normal. Since B must not be cacheable, the server has to handle the Back operation again, but the "Page is expired" message should not appear; it will just delay the user and possibly make him think he can't get back to B when he really can.