Number 256 - September 2004

Is That Web Page Current?
by Jack Koonan, LACS
Have you ever wondered how up-to-date the web pages are that you are viewing? If so, here is how you can find the age or date of a web page.    1. Open up a page in your web browser.    2. In the address box type: javascript:alert (document.lastModified)    3. Press the Enter Key or the browser Go button on the Address Bar.    4. Now you should be able to see an open dialog box containing the date and time the page was last updated.    To avoid having to type the javascript:alert (document.lastModified) address each time, you can drag the javascript:alert (document.lastModified) address to the links tool bar in Internet Explorer. This should also work with other browsers. To do this, click your mouse on the address in the address bar and drag it to the links bar.    Another way to automate checking a web page's date is to type the javascript:alert (document.lastModified) address into a Notepad document and save the file. When you want to use it to check a web page date, open the Notepad document, copy/paste it into the Address Bar of your browser and click Go on the address bar or press Enter.	Or, you can drag the unopened Notepad document to the links bar. This creates a shortcut to the document. From the links bar, open the shortcut and copy/paste the java address into your browser and click Go on the address bar or press Enter.    These procedures should work if the correct java script modified date is included in the we page and that page is sent to the server. Unfortunately, some servers do not maintain Java Modification dates correctly. If the web page update information is not correct, or current, it may show up in the dialog box as the local date and time shown on your computer's bottom right task bar. Sometimes hitting the refresh button on the toolbar will refresh the page and the correct web page last modified date will appear in the dialog box. Give this a try when you want to know the date and when a web page was created, modified, or updated.    Here are 4 examples of web sites that work with the information presented:    1. http://kodak.photonet.com/    2. www.whitehouse.gov/error-404.html    3. www.whitehouse.gov/firstlady/flbio.html    4. www.smmc.ca.gov/.
Number 256 - September 2004