[Enhancement]: Add a setting to enable or disable cdv.

[ufoloko]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Description of problem

Sometimes when you are still working on some design stuff, while in in development, sometimes you need css and js files being updated in real time to test changes, without need to go to server > performance and change host version, avoiding css and js cache.

Last dnn versions had minify and composite options to avoid that but now that options dissapear.

Description of solution

Would be great to have some option or setting to avoid cdv cache, while in development. or maybe while site is in debug ( Security > More > More Security Settings > Enable debug mode).

Description of alternatives considered

No response

Anything else?

No response

Do you plan to contribute code for this enhancement?

• Yes

Would you be interested in sponsoring this enhancement?

• Yes

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[mitchelsellers]

This is an interesting and good request; however, I believe the current behavior to increment on installation or manual update is really the "best case" situation with the current underlying features.

Static files are set with a cache expiration far in the future for a default performance improvement out of the box.

Are you looking for something that might append a totally random cache bust value to each request to bypass cache?

[jeremy-farrance]

Are you looking for something that might append a totally random cache bust value to each request to bypass cache?

That is a solid and useful feature that we would like to see (and need, as an agency making custom themes).

[ufoloko]

Well, honestly i don´t know so much how Client Dependency works now, but a random cdv value can be helpfull if site is in debug mode, or simply having any other option to avoid cdv cache.

Main idea is to avoid to change Host Version anytime I change css of js files, this is helpfull when making custom themes, just like Jeremy said.

Maybe other opcion can be to override cdv version with querystring parameter, but option with random cdv value think is better

[jeremy-farrance]

What if, while on, the CDV value simple became a the date+time down to the second? ?cdv=20260526145505? So YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. Its long, but this is only on during testing/dev.

Maybe, DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);.

[donker]

This proposal came out of today's Tech Meeting: when in debug mode use the unix timestamp (seconds resolution would be good enough, right?) as cdv nr. This would cause the browser to refresh dependencies continuously.

[jeremy-farrance]

@bdukes and @donker - I like this simple solution, but now there is a very real problem of discoverability. Think about a designer working on a theme; the person who could benefit from this. Where and how could they discover that this possibility existed?

As a similarly very quick solution...

My proposed first draft improvement would be these two updates in the PersonaBar:

On the PB/Settings/Security/More, MORE SECURITY SETTINGS, the Debug Mode toggle has an "info" icon tooltip that says:

Check this box to run the installation in "debug mode". This causes various parts of the application to write more verbose error logs etc. Note: This may lead to performance degradation.

With Debug Mode turned On, various parts of the application to write more verbose error logs, the Client Resource Management cdv value switches to a unique value (aggressive cache-busting), etc. Note: this may lead to some performance degradation.

This is stored in /Dnn.AdminExperience/Dnn.PersonaBar.Extensions/admin/personaBar/Dnn.Security/App_LocalResources - Security.resx, name="plDebugMode.Help"

The also in the PersonaBar, under Settings/Servers/Server Settings, PERFORMANCE, add to the paragraph under "CLIENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT" Dnn.Servers/App_LocalResources/Servers.resx - name="PerformanceTab_ClientResourceManagementInfo.Text"

Add:

Note: when DNN (Settings / Security / More / More Security Settings) Debug Mode is On, the CDV value switches to a unique, aggressive cache-busting value which should cause the browser to request most client resources on every page load.

[ufoloko]

I liked the proposed solution about unix timestamp, and as a plus, maybe a querystring parameter could override that value too.

Anyway, just having timestamp while in debug mode can be a enough option.