427734 - Iframe targetted by form keeps source url on reload

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 279048

(Core :: Layout: Images, Video, and HTML Frames, defect)

Description

[u305358]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008032620 Firefox/3.0b5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008032620 Firefox/3.0b5

Say a page has a form. Say the target of that form is an iframe embedded in the page with the form. Now what if the page that gets loaded in the iframe reloads the parent? What should happen is that the parent loads once, same as it did initially. However, Firefox loads the parent with the source of the iframe as it was, which means the parent gets reloaded again, which reloads the source of the iframe, etc.

This can be a major issue if the page reloads fast enough, as it hangs Firefox. It may reload fast enough if the page is on an intranet or the local machine, or if your computer is slow enough for it to be a problem. Try it on your local machine to see.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Visit the URL.
2. Click the button.
Actual Results:  
The page reloads repeatedly.

Expected Results:  
The page loads once, and text displays in the iframe.

You need the firebug extension turned off (or not installed) for the problem to occur- I'm guessing this is because it's a caching issue and firebug somehow bypasses the cache. I suppose that could be a bug in firebug, but I don't know.

See the source code for more details. The only reason that the iframe source is a php file is because my host doesn't allow POSTs to html files.

An example of how to work around the problem (and how the thing should behave is at http://omnitude.net/vike/test_pass.html . This is also more evidence that it's a caching issue- putting a random string in the GET parameters forces it to be reloaded from cache, fixing the problem.

Comment 1

[Heinz]

Hi,

this behaviour makes  e.g. www.netvibes.com unusable. I removed the add on "Firebug", but the effect is still there. Using Firefox 2.0.0.14, German language edition.

Could you please set the priority to high?

Comment 2

[u305358]

No, I can't change the priority. If you can reproduce it, which it sounds like you can, can you try to confirm the bug? Not sure you will be able to but worth a go.

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

In general, reloading should reload what's currently shown, not something that used to be shown.  See bug 279048.

Comment 4

[shalewyn]

I have also run into this issue. This code should load the file test.html into the frame in which the calling code currently sits (i.e the parent frame):

<a href="#" onclick="parent.frames['OriginalFrame'].location.href='test.html';">Load test page</a><br>

In IE and Chrome this works fine.  In Firefox it just reloads the *original* page - i.e. the page containing the above code - instead of test.html.

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6.x or later in safe mode? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

Comment 6

[u305358]

Retested with 2.6.8 in safe mode.

Still seeing the issue. Try it yourself- click http://omnitude.net/vike/test_fail.html and if it reloads repeatedly then you're seeing the issue. How it should behave: http://omnitude.net/vike/test_pass.html or try the fail url in any other browser.

To make it hang your firefox, save it to your computer and run it from there. It reloads so quickly that firefox uses 100% CPU and becomes unresponsive.

Comment 7

[u305358]

Oops, sorry, meant to say I retested with 3.6.8 in safe mode, not 2.6.8. So yes it's still an issue in the latest "stable".

Comment 8

[u305358]

This is fixed in FF5. I suspect it was fixed when bug 279048 was fixed but I was unable to test it at the time.