Make page to tell browser not to cache/preserve input values

Question

Most browsers cache form input values. So when the user refreshes a page, the inputs have the same values.

Here's my problem. When a user clicks Save, the server validates POSTed data (e.g. checked products), and if not valid, sends it back to the browser. However, as stated above, even if the server clears selection for some values, they may still be selected because of the browser cache!

My data has invisible (until parent item selected) checkboxes, so the user may be even not aware that some previous value is still selected, until clicking Save again and gets an error message - even though the user thinks it's not. Which is irritating.

This can be resolved by doing Ctrl + F5, but it's not even a solution. Is there an automatic/programmatic way to tell browser not to cache form input data on some form/page?

Solution 1

Are you explicitly setting the values as blank? For example:

<input type="text" name="textfield" value="">

That should stop browsers putting data in where it shouldn't. Alternatively, you can add the autocomplete attribute to the form tag:

<form autocomplete="off" ...></form>

Solution 2

From a Stack Overflow reference

It did not work with value="" if the browser already saves the value so you should add.

For an input tag there's the attribute autocomplete you can set:

<input type="text" autocomplete="off" />

You can use autocomplete for a form too.

Solution 3

Basically, there are two ways to clear the cache:

<form autocomplete="off"></form>

or

$('#Textfiledid').attr('autocomplete', 'off');

Solution 4

Another approach would be to reset the form using JavaScript right after the form in the HTML:

<form id="myForm">
  <input type="text" value="" name="myTextInput" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
  document.getElementById("myForm").reset();
</script>

Solution 5

This worked for me in newer browsers:

autocomplete="new-password"

View more solutions

Comments

[queen3]

I talk about checkboxes so I can't set value to "". And, does autocomplete off means not to store form input values "when user presses F5", not only "for dropdown autocompletion list"?

[queen3]

According to developer.mozilla.org/en/How_to_Turn_Off_Form_Autocompletion‌​, autcompletion=off affects "Session history caching", at least in Gecko. I will test if it works for what I need.

[DisgruntledGoat]

@queen3: Yes, checkboxes are a problem since there is no way to explicitly say "not checked". If you're still having problems, you could try checked="false", it may work in some browsers. Another alternative is to use Javascript/jQuery to explicitly untick all checkboxes on page load.

[sejnovic]

@queen3, you mean "autocomplete=off" not "autocompletion=off"

[mindplay.dk]

In Chrome, it appears autocomplete="off" has no effect when used on individual form-elements - even with value attribute explicitly set blank, and while sending a Cache-Control: Must-Revalidate header, this had no effect. I had to apply the autocomplete="off" attribute to the <form> element itself to suppress this behavior in Chrome.

[hakan]

All of the answers and suggestions didnt work for me. Using chrome and develeoping .net

[Kingsley Simon]

i did autocomplete="off" on form but it didnt work for me

[shareef]

i need more info @KingsleySimon like browser , and you may have some settings on your browser that prevent the correct behavior

[david]

it seems that browser's behavior has changed: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/…

[shareef]

and be noted the html valid form . and for example its not aform inside another etc

[thenninger]

@piedpiper Try ModelState.Clear() in your controller action. If you are using return View(...or return PartialView(... then it will return the old values. This is by design for MVC.

[6opko]

...adding autocomplete="off" as an input field argument did the trick for me