We have encountered several significant issues due to how Specify caches information from the stored /context/system_info.json endpoint.

A long-running consequence of us not doing this is #3160, and more recently this became a big deal with #6096

Neither of these issues are resolved yet, but @melton-jason has a simple solution:

To fix these issues, the cache should be cleared when:

• A user chooses a collection.
• A user logs out.

The Issue can come up WAY more frequently than you might think if the database has at least one geo discipline and one non-geo discipline.

Due to the caching behavior, you can even easily recreate #6064!

See my below videos recreating both this Issue and #6064, both times in a new incognito tab (nothing initially cached).

Logging into non-geo/paleo discipline prevents it from showing for paleo/geo collections

no_age_in_paleo.mov

Logging into geo/paleo disciplines shows Age for non-paleo/geo collections

age_in_nonpaleo.mov

What's worse is that you need to clear your cache and/or log out multiple times for the value to completely clear from the cache!

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The Issue here is that to determine the discipline type, Specify fetches the information from the stored /context/system_info.json endpoint

specify7/specifyweb/frontend/js_src/lib/components/WbPlanView/navigator.ts

Lines 545 to 546 in 181c2de

	const disciplineType =
	getSystemInfo().discipline_type?.toLowerCase();

specify7/specifyweb/frontend/js_src/lib/components/InitialContext/systemInfo.ts

Lines 30 to 60 in 181c2de

	export const fetchContext = load<SystemInfo>(
	'/context/system_info.json',
	'application/json'
	).then((data) => {
	systemInfo = data;
	if (systemInfo.stats_url !== null)
	ping(
	formatUrl(
	systemInfo.stats_url,
	{
	version: systemInfo.version,
	dbVersion: systemInfo.database_version,
	institution: systemInfo.institution,
	institutionGUID: systemInfo.institution_guid,
	discipline: systemInfo.discipline,
	collection: systemInfo.collection,
	collectionGUID: systemInfo.collection_guid,
	isaNumber: systemInfo.isa_number,
	disciplineType: systemInfo.discipline_type
	},
	/*
	* I don't know if the receiving server handles GET parameters in a
	* case-sensitive way. Thus, don't convert keys to lower case, but leave
	* them as they were sent in previous versions of Specify 7
	*/
	false
	),
	{ errorMode: 'silent' }
	).catch(softFail);
	return systemInfo;
	});

The Client stores its own value of the endpoint value along with caching the url: this is a problem with the application, not a generic browser cache Issue.

I think a fine solution to the problem is to clear the application and browser cache whenever:

• the user chooses a collections
• the user logs out

This would also fix a lot of other cache-related Issues as well!

An implementation for clearing the cache when a user chooses/switches collection can theoretically be as simple as modifying the following from:

specify7/specifyweb/frontend/js_src/lib/components/RouterCommands/SwitchCollection.tsx

Lines 38 to 43 in 9563d88

	async () =>
	ping('/context/collection/', {
	method: 'POST',
	body: collectionId!.toString(),
	errorMode: 'dismissible',
	}).then(() => globalThis.location.replace(nextUrl)),

to:

      async () =>
        ping('/context/collection/', {
          method: 'POST',
          body: collectionId!.toString(),
          errorMode: 'dismissible',
        })
          .then(clearAllCache)
          .then(() => globalThis.location.replace(nextUrl)),

Originally posted by @melton-jason in #6096