extensions and the refresh link

[ka3jjz]

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to how to use the refresh link, and when it should be used.

To review: There are a set of custom extensions Lindsay wrote to enable folks to pull data directly from the database onto a wiki article. How to use these extensions is fully documented here;

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/RR_Wiki_Extensions

The next question is to how to keep the data in the article and the data in the database in sync when the database changes. The coding is a bit odd, and not everyone can remember what to do - I know I certainly don't all the time with things like this - so a standard was set up to put what is known as a refresh link at the bottom of each article that uses the extensions. Only 1 refresh link is required per article - so if you have lots of data you are pulling, the single link will refresh them all. Let's examine this coding a bit...

<small>[http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Andrews_Air_Force_Base%2C_MD?action=purge Refresh] this page from the latest database entry</small>

The <small> tag keeps the text small and out of the way of the rest of the article (which is also why it's recommended to put it at the bottom). I have highlighted the part that seems to cause the most confusion.

What is this doing? The wiki has a page cache that functions much like the cache in your browser. It attempts to pre-fetch a page rather than retrieve it each time. This adds speed, but it comes with a price tag. When using the extensions, it will also recall the data as it was before any changes were applied.

Using the purge command purges the cache and forces the extensions to retrieve data again - and this time, it picks up any changes that were applied to the database.

Hopefully this clears up the confusion. If there are further questions don't hesitate to yell.

73 Mike