AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, forward, loses unsaved form contents (Thinkpad keyboard in particular)
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launchpad itself |
Triaged
|
Low
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
I think this is related to the "fix" of bug #361090, and its a basic usability issue.
Specifically, my Lenovo laptop has 'helpful' browser Back and Forward buttons right next to the Arrow keys. On occasion I will hit then accidentally when I mean to move in the text widget. (Say I had a type three words ago, and wanted to arrow back to fix it, but hit Browser Back instead of Left.)
Normally, this isn't terrible, because I can just hit Browser Forward, and Firefox remembers what I had typed in the text widget. (I've even used this sometimes to go quick check some reference information from a previous page I was just at.)
However, with the Ajax widget we now have, if I hit back, it "just goes" and when I hit forward, all of my edits have disappeared. Perhaps just one of those Javascript "You have made changes on this page, if you navigate away, they will be lost, are you sure?" dialogs would be helpful here.
In reporting this, I lost about 5-min worth of editing because of a single "typo".
| Changed in malone: | |
| status: | New → Triaged |
| importance: | Undecided → Low |
| summary: |
- inline editor of bug description not compatible with back/forward + Data loss: Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, + forward (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) |
| Paul Sladen (sladen) wrote Re: Data loss: Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, forward (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) | #1 |
| summary: |
- Data loss: Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, - forward (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) + Data loss: AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with + back, forward (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) |
| Robert Collins (lifeless) wrote Re: AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, forward (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) | #2 |
| summary: |
- Data loss: AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with - back, forward (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) + AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, forward + (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) |
| summary: |
- AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, forward - (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) + AJAX Inline editor of bug description not compatible with back, forward, + loses unsaved form contents (Thinkpad keyboard in particular) |
| Paul Sladen (sladen) wrote | #3 |
I switched back to my Thinkpad earlier this week for natty work.
In the last six days I have lost approximately ten mid-edit Launchpad forms because of hitting "back" instead of left/right/up/down, including two in the last hour (hence hunting out this bug). Whilst the hardware design of placing the buttons next to the arrow keys is utterly stupid, when it combined with the data-loss from pressing back-then-forward in Launchpad AJAX then it magnifies up to a major pain, exacerbating stress and causing momentary screaming ... then, in some cases, another 20 minutes redrafting the update along with re-finding all of the included links.
Workarounds: (1) I know that I can do some custom mapping to make back/forward do nothing (I used just this for several years on a previous Thinkpad R31 and then again on a Thinkpad R51). (2) I can use the Launchpad email interface more. (3) Try to remember to edit in an external editor that doesn't lose state when those keys are pressed.
Ideally the AJAX would work in such a manner that pressing "Back" (or forwards), followed by "Forward" (or back) is fully reversible. Normal HTML forms work in this fashion.