55279 - double-click on a link generates two subsequent requests of a same URL

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core :: Layout, defect, P3)

Description

[Mikhail Khlopotov]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; m18) Gecko/20001003
BuildID:    2000100308

If user double-clicks on a URL, Mozilla generates two subsequent
requests to a server.  This is VERY dangerous in web-applications
because this may lead to actions to be performed twice.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
Open any page with links to a server you can see logs of.

Double-click on	a link			

Actual Results:  Mozilla generates two GET requests to a server, what can be
seen in logs					

Expected Results:  Mozilla should ignore second click and issue only ONE request.

Many inexperienced users double-click on a link instead of a click.

Also, if a page you requested by a single click loads too long
there is a time between your click and new page displayed.
During this time it is possible to click on another link on an old
page which is still visible and to cancel previous request.

Probably, there should be kind of a delay before abortion of a
request by link click will be possible or such cancel shoulb not be
possible at all (i.e. abortion is only possible with STOP button or
typing in URL field)

Comment 1

[buster]

RFE?  joki?

Comment 2

[Mikhail Khlopotov]

I don't think this is a enchancement.  All the other browsers behave
correctly when they get double-click (Netscape 4.7 does at least).

The only thing needed is to react to a double click on a ordinary link
as it were a singe click.

Also, bug http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55784 may relate to this.

Comment 3

[Loco]

Hold on a bit-what would happen to onDblClick if you were to ignore double clicks 
on links?

Honestly I don't see why this should be impplemented-we can't start making all 
sorts of exceptions for novice users who happen to click twice.  If it was doing 
something bad, I could understand, but my view is that if there is one click, 
there is one request-if there are two clicks, two requests, etc...

I'm honestly tempted to mark this WONTFIX, any thoughts?

Comment 4

[Mikhail Khlopotov]

Netscape Communicator treats double-click as a single click and issues only one
request. Internet Explorer does the same.  So they are safe for novices who
work with web-applications.

Only Mozilla issues two requests.

You probaly don't know what a headache for a developer to avoid such situation
with reloads and back buttons, now you want to add another one?

Imagine web app which navigates over a tree-like structure with a relative 
links.
Let's say we have a "Level up" link on every level of a tree.
Now, because of being novice or because of interface design users does 
double-click.
In NN, or IE app would move only ONE level up,  but in Mozilla it will go TWO
levels higher. This is a way for tons of bugs to appear in existing web 
applications and a reason for developers to say "This does'nt work in Mozilla.  
It works in NN3, but not Mozilla and N6.

Is that we want?

All what is needed to fix this -- is to treat double-click as a single click.
That's all.

Comment 5

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Saying that IE doesn't interpret two subsequent clicks on the same link 
as two separate clicks is incorrect. I just tried it (Windows 2000, IE 5.5)
and clicking on the same link within the double-click interval time caused
to GET requests to be sent.

This CANNOT cause the "two levels up" case you posit. It is impossible. That
is because the two GET requests will be the same, and GET requests are state-
less according to HTTP/1.1.

If you think this is a bug, could you provide us with a web page that shows
this problem? I have played around in Bugzilla with its links for the last
five minutes and I could not find any problems. If anything, it just made the
browser seem more responsive. Also, having feedback on both clicks is one of
the best ways of educating users about the fact that two clicks on a link really
are two separate events.

Given the three points above, I am marking this INVALID. Please reopen if you
can provide us either with a real life example of the problem or with a testcase
that shows the hypothetical bad behaviour.

Comment 6

[Loco]

Marking VERIFIED.

Comment 7

[Heikki Toivonen (remove -bugzilla when emailing directly)]

SPAM. HTML Element component deprecated, changing component to Layout. See bug
88132 for details.

Comment 8

[IU]

This really should be fixed.  Should I open a new bug report?

Go to http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Skype_for_Windows/1062684717/1 and
doubleclick the link for the Skype homepage (middle right).  Firefox launches
two windows; IE launches only one.  Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1;
en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050622 Firefox/1.0+ on Windows XP SP2