[savannah-help-public] [sr #108562] "Submit" appears in two places, hitting the wrong one loses your submission

[Bob Proulx]

Update of sr #108562 (project administration):

                  Status:                    None => Confirmed              
             Assigned to:                    None => rwp                    

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Follow-up Comment #3:

> You say I should be able to hit the back button - when I do this the
> contents of what I typed has gone (I just tested this out right here
> typing in this...

Hmm...  I tested various actions with different browsers.  I think I may have
confused myself when looking at normal links versus when looking at the submit
pulldown link.  When I navigate to any normal link (say the User Docs:
Cookbook link for example) and then go Back then the browser restores the form
text state.  But when I naviage away using the pulldown submit link it does
not.  There is also a slightly longer pause there making me think there is an
HTTP redirect happening.  That would rewrite the Back history.  (Redirects are
often required for correct Back functionality such as after a form
submission.)  But when I try to capture that with wget/curl I don't see any
redirect happening.  It is just a normal transaction.  Which is conflicting
information since that shouldn't break the Back button behavior but it is
somehow.  There are two trackers.  Each works with the opposite but is broken
with the same.

> It sounds like that is the real bug to fix, as you say, accidentally
> navigating away is always possible, but you don't want to lose a
> heap of typing when you do.

Something that I couldn't yet quantify is also happening.  It needs more
investigation.  Because Back is definitely broken for the pulldown submit link
when it is working okay for the normal navigation links.  It is only the
pulldown Submit link.  Other pulldown links are okay.  Also it isn't simply
the submit button since there are two trackers and the opposite one always
works.  It is only the same page referrer that breaks the Back button.

This leads me to believe the problem is probably due to something in the PHP
code related to an actively logged in session dynamically doing something
different in the combination of being logged in and navigating to a link to
the same page that is currently actively.  It is probably doing something
silly like trying to optimize page reloads or something and instead doing
something buggy.  It would probably be obvious from looking at the PHP code. 
(Shudder!)

> I didn't offer to fix this as it would result in a net loss to the
> free software movement by diverting me from Denemo - I didn't
> realize there was no-one with the code at their fingertips who could
> replace the label "Submit" with "Create Submission" or some
> such. And, now, with your comment about the back button behavior, I
> guess the problem is more severe - that would just be an
> amelioration.

By all means please keep working on Denemo! I was just being honest about the
unlikelyhood of any fix happening in the near future.  I as well haven't
jumped in on the web UI because it would distract me from the host system
maintanence that needs to be done. Unfortunately no one is actively working on
the web PHP user interface code at this time.  That problem has had some
background chatter but no formal discussion for a solution has occurred yet. 
And so things are simply continuing as they are at the moment.

> Finally, I just noticed that this form (the one for adding a new
> comment) *does* have a button "Submit Changes" in view, towards the
> top. But the form to create a bug report does not :(

The page UI is somewhat hodgepodge throughout. It would be a target rich
environment for a PHP web person to work through and improve.

Your report brings up two issues.  One is UI ergonomics of submit buttons. 
The other is that the Back button is broken for the pulldown submit to the
same page as currently active.

With this further analysis I will go ahead and assign it to me so that it will
be in my queue to notice when I am looking at tasks.  I might be able to
squeeze some time to fix it.  And there isn't anyone else looking at these
types of problems.  But honestly it might be a while before I can get to it.

Note to any future Savannah Hacker.  If you see this and are a PHP web person
please feel free to claim the ticket and jump in if it is still unfixed.


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