Controlling Browser Cache

so suppose i have a whole bunch of images in a page, and then I go to a different url that has the exact same images and layout, since the url is different the browser will reload

Solution 1:

would asking the browser cache by using headers not help

header("Cache-Control: private, max-age=5400, pre-check=5400");
    header("Pragma: private");
    header("Expires: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s"). " GMT");

there a good site to check returned headers http://redbot.org try it out it may help plus theres http://www.mnot.net/cache_docs/ you may want to look at if you dont figger your answer.

Solution 2:

Images if they have a fixed directory /images/image1.jpg will not be re-fetched unless you have set your headers to no-cache. It should not re download all the images that were on another page.

Test this with any variety of tools, for instance Firebug with Firefox or Safari / Chrome webkit web developer tracking. It will notify you if it was being cached or re-downloaded.

Hope that is what you are asking...