515334 - AJAX response (async) blocks input

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[M. Klein]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.9.1.2) Gecko/20090729 Firefox/3.5.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.9.1.2) Gecko/20090729 Firefox/3.5.2

(see example page). While entering a text in a textbox, I use javascript to make an AJAX call that validates the input, and then returns a status to a <div> on the fly. This works in all major browsers, and used to work fine in Firefox until version 3.5 (no extensions, default theme). Now, while the dynamic content is returned from the AJAX call and put into place using innerHTML, any keyboard input seems to be blocked.

Tried with XML and JSON response, textarea and input fields, the problem persists.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open example page http://www.remix64.com/stuff/ff_ajax_bug.php
2. Enter text, vary typing speed. 
3. Keep typing while the ajax call is fired. Keys typed during the process are not entered into the textarea.
Actual Results:  
The text misses characters.

Expected Results:  
The AJAX call should not be noticeable by the user, the text should appear as the user types it.

I rate this "Major", because several textboxes have become unusable after a 3.5 update, and we have to tell customers to use another browser in the meantime.

Comment 1

[M. Klein]

Terribly sorry. It turned out it was a bug in my script making it a synchronous call. The only weird thing about it is that it worked as expected in all the other browsers, including earlier FireFoxes.