How to detect when XHR returns a cached resource?

Question

I'm wondering if there is a way how to detect when a response is returned from a local cache? Is it possible?

The solution should be general and work for unconditional requests. In this case, the response code is always 200 OK, but XHR returns a cached resource for the second request (e.g. the first response contains Expires header, so there is no need to ask a server for a new resource before the expiration date).

Answer 1

The answer is Date header

• If date header is before send date then a response is coming from a cache.
• If date header is after date when a request was sent then a response is fresh.

e.g.

• from cache: request was sent at 11:00, response date is 10:59
• no cache: request was sent at 11:00, response date is 11:01