502048 - Page refresh doesn't trigger events on preserved fields

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Dinu Marina]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; GTB6; Syncosoft AppManager;  Embedded Web Browser from: http://bsalsa.com/; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729)
Build Identifier: 3.0.11

When a page is refreshed in firefox, the browser sometimes intentionally or accidentally preserves previous user's options. For instance, if there is a <select> element with no default selected <option>, or a few <input type="checkbox"> items, when hitting Refresh, Mozilla will keep the previous option selected (the one before the refresh). I don't see any problem with this behavior, BUT the problem is that it doesn't trigger any events to notify of the change (such as onchange). This is a problem for AJAX and pages that dynamically deliver content based on change events, it can happen that the user sees some options selected but a completely mismatched content. I havent checked if this happens with other elements but it sure does with <select> and <input type="checkbox">. This is problematic for dynamic pages since there's no consistent resolution to it (or is there?).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Drop a <select> with no default selected option and a few <input type="checkbox" checked="checked"> items on a page. A <form> container is not necessary.
2. Uncheck a few boxes, select an option from the <select>
3. Click Refresh
4. You will notice that previous options are preserved
5. But no onchange/onclick events are triggered.


Expected Results:  
Either the input fields should not preserve user selection on refresh, or they should trigger appropriate events. If they are to fire events however, there is a problem of picking the time for such. Indeed a golden rule of design would be that when an event is set, the code for handling the event is guaranteed to be loaded. However, many pages out there rather rely on the principle that "the user won't click this fast" and assume (with no appropriate countermeasure) that user-triggered events happen 2-3 seconds in the loading of the page (possibly after onload).

Comment 1

[Dinu Marina]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.11) Gecko/2009060215 Firefox/3.0.11 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

Comment 2

[Ian Stirling.]

Can you produce a simple testcase script?

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This is a mass search for Firefox General bugs filed against version 3.0 that are UNCO and have not been changed for 200 days.

Reporter, please update to Firefox 3.6.10 or alter. Firefox 3.0 is no longer supported and is no longer receiving updates. After you update, please create a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/kb/managing+profiles, and test to see if your bug still exists. If you still the bug, then please post a comment with the version you tested against, and the problem. If the issue is no longer there, please set the RESOLUTION to  RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply from reporter, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.