Laurens
informed us that the new Sunrise 0.40 pre2 allows you to modify the way how downloaded documents are cached:
# Default: Use the cached page/image if the Cache-Control or Expires header indicates that it hasn't expired yet. Otherwise, check with the web server if the cached copy is up-to-date using a Conditional GET request (see below).
# Revalidate: Always check with the web server is the cached copy is up-to-date using a Conditional GET request. This is akin to Reloading/Refreshing in the web browser.
# Disable: Do not use the cache at all.
Sunrise 0.40 pre2 also contains some important bug fixes allowing you to run it on Windows 9x machines again.
You can download the latest Sunrise by clicking
here, or visit
here first to see a list of all changes for 0.40 pre2.
Sunrise is the only desktop component I know that respects Conditional GET requests, which can not only free up server resources but also reduces overall bandwidth consumption for the user. So what is a Considitional GET? The people who invented
HTTP decided that a web client such as Internet Explorer or Sunrise should be able to ask a web server via a conditional GET if a web document has changed since the last time it looked at it. If nothing has changed, the server returns a simple 304 respond code which means as much as "Not Modified" and tells the client that it doesn't have to redownload the document.
Let's hope that other downloaders like iSiloX will support this feature as well in future!