Last modified: 2007-12-05 19:35:15 UTC
Got an idea: add a link "purge this page" somewhere on each page. Sure, not right up there at top. Perhaps somewhere below and obscure. Problems: perhaps call it "refresh this page" or "refresh", as "purge" means kill to most people. Yes, it should of course still link to action=purge. Anyway, the idea is that it will save the user from haveing to construct the proper action=purge URL. Sure, just click "Edit this page" and replace action=edit with action=purge you say. Well the user would then first download a giant action=edit page, etc. Also he might not be smart enough to "copy URL" in the browser and enter an adjusted URL, etc.
Why do we need a "purge/refresh" button on every page? Pages should be updated if they are edited or a template/image in them is. Granted jobqueue slowness might play a small factor, this hardly seems necessary. Anyway, there is an extension to do this I believe.
There. I see it. A "purge" link is already on top of every page in Commons. So most of the work is done. Maybe this could be a preferences item.
action=purge should never be needed for general use. When it is, it's basically because the software broke and someone who knows how the system works (eg a power user) has to go punch it around a bit. That's a detail we don't want to expose to every random person, as it's confusing and takes up UI space for a rare power user operation. Note that as a power user, you can fairly easily add a purge tab with custom JS. Where the Gadgets system is enabled, it would be easy to set it up as a Preferences option locally.
