jQuery Forum

Since it looks like they are static, why not just have the server create a <script> for them. No ajax/ no sessionStorage.

Your sessionStorage items will exist so long as the user doesn't close the browser and stays in the same tab/window. (A new tab/window gets it's own sessionStorage.)

If you want the data to persist across sessions, use localStorage instead.

As Jake points out, your Ajax request will be cached unless the server sets some header saying not to. Then it will load quickly on a new session IF the data still exists in the cache. with localStorage, it will just stick around forever (or until the user clears it manually).

 how can I access cached variables

You can't. First off, there is no such thing as a "cached variable". Only cached documents. When the browser requests a document, it will be satisfied from cache, if not expires, headers allow, etc. The browser doesn't care what kind of content the document holds. It knows nothing of your "variables".

I wasn't sure if it did or not because if I debugged my server code it still went through and did the same operations as before.

What "operations" are those?

your Ajax request will be cached unless the server sets some header saying not to

Normally, the browser will still contact the server to check headers. If you don't want that, you can set cache options. It has to see if there is newer data. So, honestly, it doesn't save much with typical default options. It just omits the data payload, which, in this case, is probably minimal.

There are a bunch of caching options:

   http://www.mobify.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-http-cache-headers/

We don't know just what you are trying to accomplish here, so no idea what is most appropriate.

Example it would still go through this code: 

2.  public JsonResult GetTags()
3.         {
4.             EntityDBContext db = new EntityDBContext();
5.             IEnumerable<PublishedSong> songs = db.PublishedSongs.ToList();
6.             IEnumerable<Station> stations = db.Stations.ToList();
7.             var songsCount = songs.Count();
8.             var stationsCount = stations.Count();
9. 
   
10.             string[] songNameTags = new String[songsCount];
11.             string[] songAlbumTags = new String[songsCount];
12.             string[] songArtistTags = new String[songsCount];
13.             string[] stationNameTags = new String[stationsCount];
14. 
    
15.             for (int i = 0; i < songsCount; i++)
16.             {
17.                 songNameTags[i] = songs.ElementAt(i).SongName;
18.                 songAlbumTags[i] = songs.ElementAt(i).AlbumName;
19.                 songArtistTags[i] = songs.ElementAt(i).ArtistName;
20.             }
21. 
    
22.             for (int i = 0; i < stationsCount; i++)
23.             {
24.                 stationNameTags[i] = stations.ElementAt(i).StationName;
25.             }
26. 
    
27.             var tags = new { songNameTags = songNameTags, songAlbumTags = songAlbumTags, songArtistTags = songArtistTags, stationNameTags = stationNameTags };
28. 
    
29.             return Json(tags, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
30.         }

It's not useful to post server code here. If you need help with how to use cache headers with your server language, you need a forum for your server language.

I still don't know what you are trying to accomplish, or why you want to use Ajax.

If you have DYNAMIC content (you use some server language, and the server language creates the HTML) there'a typically a presumption that the documents should NOT be cached.

So, servers are TYPICALLY set-up to allow caching of static content, but not dynamic.

You can override this. Either with your server software (e.g. Apache) or in your server language (e.g. PHP).

We don't know how you have your server set-up, or what, if any, headers you set in your server code.