javascript_include_tag and stylesheet_link_tag additional generated parameters

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi.

I just wonder why do the javascript_include_tag and stylesheet_link_tag methods generate additional parameters and add them to the paths on output?

For example, I have the following view:

# app/views/test.haml

%html   %head     = stylesheet_link_tag 'styles.css'     = javascript_include_tag 'scripts.js' ...

and when I load it, I get the next HTML:

<html>   <head>     <link href="/stylesheets/styles.css?1276104169" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />     <script src="/javascripts/prototype.js?1275579095" type="text/ javascript"></script> ...

What do '1276104169' and '1275579095' mean and why are they added to the paths?

Any help and links are wellcome.

Thanks.

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.4; Ruby 1.9.2; Rails 2.3.8.

2

They're the timestamps of when the file was changed. If you do update the css/javascript files then when you next rollout the timestamp will be different and people's browsers won't cache the old version

Fred

3

And if you want to get rid of them for some reason just create new initializer with following code:

ENV['RAILS_ASSET_ID'] = ''

and restart your server. All this numbers will go away.