Implementing PeopleSoft Page Caching

PeopleSoft pages are application pages that appear in the target content region of the portal frameset.

Being able to control PeopleSoft page caching on the browser is useful for situations in which PeopleSoft applications are deployed to kiosk workstations where multiple users access the applications. Disabling caching means that users can't click the browser's Back button to view another person's transaction or to view any other sensitive data.

Enabling PeopleSoft Page Caching

You enable PeopleSoft page caching for a site by selecting the Cache Generated HTML check box in the On the Browser group box of the Web Profile Configuration - Caching page. PeopleSoft page caching is enabled by default.

With PeopleSoft page caching disabled, when users click the Back button they receive a message indicating that data is missing or that the page has expired.

Note:

The side effect of turning off caching completely is degraded performance. For each new page, the system calls the database. However, PeopleTools offers a compromise related to browser caching in the form of navigation pagelet caching, which doesn't expose any sensitive information.

See Controlling Navigation Pagelet Caching.

Specifying Supported States

When the browser caches a PeopleSoft page, it stores the state of that page, including any unsaved changes. With the page state in the cache, users clicking the browser's Back button see the cached page in the state that it was in when they last viewed it. The browser caches as many page states as its own settings for storing temporary data allow.

The portal also maintains its own cache of page states for each browser window. You can specify how many of these states the portal should consider valid and support for further interaction. This setting, combined with the number of states that the browser maintains, determines whether users can continue to work with previously accessed page states.

For example, if you specify that the portal should support two states, and the user clicks the Back button three times, any activity that requires refreshing the displayed page from the web server (such as field validation) fails, producing a page unavailable message in the browser.

You specify how many states the portal should support by entering a number in the Number of States Supported field in the On the Browser group box of the Web Profile Configuration - Caching page. The default value of this field is 5 states.