"Paul A. Rombouts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Martin Baehr wrote (previous subject was: [WWWOFFLE-Users] Alternative WWWOFFLE
> implementation):
>
> > don't delete old files if a refresh returns a 404.
> > sometimes i want to archive pages, and it hurts to loose them,
> > because they are not anymore available on the site.
> > (better, i want to archive them because they are not on the site anymore)
>
> Interesting idea. The wwwoffle server always makes a backup copy of an existing
> spool file before writing a new one. So it should not be too difficult to make
> wwwoffle restore the backup file if the response code was 404.
> I think it is best to make this a configurable option, and not standard
> behaviour.
I guess it depends to some extent on what the 404 contains. Sometimes
the 404 error message can be very useful, it might tell you that the
web pages have all moved to a new address (but not redirect for some
reason).
You could display the 404 message with a link to the original. Or
like the error message for incomplete download it could delete the 404
message and revert to the original next time it is requested. This
would mean that you need to modify the HTML output for the 404 page
though.
> There is the question though what to send to the browser while wwwoffle is
> online. Should the page containing the 404 response code be sent or the contents
> of the old spool file?
>
> In the first case you will only be able to see the content you're interested in
> while wwwoffle is offline. In the second case you'll be looking at stale content
> without necessarily realizing it.
I think that not knowing (WWWOFFLE hiding information) is not good.
On the other hand if you are trying to go to that page that no longer
exists to find a link to another page you would want to see the old
page when online.
It is a difficult one to decide, it needs some user feedback for both
online and offline behaviour. I think that good arguments could be
made for either option though.
--
Andrew.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew M. Bishop [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/
WWWOFFLE users page:
http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/version-2.7/user.html
