Search & browser back button malfunction in Chrome & FireFox

[earlene]

1) The URL to the page you are on when the bug occurred.

•  takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/search/results?page=67
•  takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/thread/16684/christmas?scrollTo=246474&page=1
• takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/search/results?page=67
  

2) What happened, in detail?

• When I do a search (in this case for all guest posts - maximum result = 1,000 posts - whether in Chrome or FireFox what I get is what I expect. BUT when I choose one of those posts in the result, and then use the browser back button, I do NOT get what I expect.  Instead of taking me back to the previous view of 67 pages of guest posts, I have 67 pages of EVERYBODY posts.
  
  

• Incidentally it does work correctly in IE8, but I cannot use that browser for almost anything else with ProBoards v5 because the interface is horrendously slow.

3) What do you think should have happened instead?

The browser back button should have taken me back to the search results in my previously viewed results.


4) Can you reproduce this on every pageview?

Yes, as long as I am in Chrome and as long as I am using FireFox  (It does not happen with IE 8, but I cannot use IE8 with ProBoards v5, the interface is horrendously slow.)



5) What browser, version, and operating system are you using?

Chrome 25.0.1364.152 m 
and
FireFox 19.0.02

        OS: Windows Vista

6) Please attach a screen shot (JPG or PNG -- not GIF or BMP) if it is relevant


Here is the sequence of events:

First the search options chosen.


Next, the results recieved:


Next, moved to view a guest post found in the search results:


Then to choose the browser back button:

Chrome 25	FireFox 19.0.2

This is where I ended up (NOT in the previous view of search result parameters, but in a view of EVERYBODY posts)

[Michael]

Hi,

By selecting a post, you mean clicking on the post and being redirected to the post in its correct thread, yes? Then you hit the back button and are returned to a search results page with incorrect results?

Oddly, I was unable to replicate this in Chrome or Firefox (same versions). This seems like a caching/cookies issue to me off the top of my head. Is Chrome/Firefox set to accept cookies, and maintain a cache?

[earlene]

Yes to your first two questions. I will have to check on the latter and get back to you.


ETA:


Both Chrome & Firefox are set to accept cookies, and our forum's url is on the list of sites where from cookies are accepted.

Both Chrome & Firefox maintain a very lengthy cache.

[earlene]

I just tested this again, using 3 different browsers.

In IE9, it works correctly.

In Firefox 19.0.2 it is still malfunctioning.  I did check to see that browser.cache.check_doc_frequency is set at 3 in config and it is.  I have  tried clearing cache and restarting Firefox, but that made no difference.

In Chrome 25.0.1364.152 m it is still malfunctioning.  I tried clearing the cache and restarting the browser and did the same kind of search.  After clicking on one of the posts in the search result for viewing, I then clicked on the browser back button and was not returned to the search results I had previously chosen, but to results of all posts by everybody.

For the time being, I know there is a work-around: keep 2 or 3 different browsers open at the same time and work within the browser where the function I want to use works, while working in another browser for the other function I want to use works, because unfortunately I haven't found a browser wherein all funtions seem to work.    

I don't mind doing that for awhile, of course, but eventually, I do hope to be able to all of these things in only one browser.

[Michael]

I did some more testing. I assumed that I was special somehow, and had a couple different users in different locations with different computers test this out for me. None were able to recreate this.

This pretty much narrows it down to something in those two browsers for you, but I'm having a difficult time figuring out what it is. I feel like your browser isn't submitting post variables.

In Chrome, could you open up Developer Tools (right click, Inspect Element) and see if you receive any errors? Javascript especially. 

[earlene]

Mar 14, 2013 12:41:19 GMT -8 Michael said:

I did some more testing. I assumed that I was special somehow, and had a couple different users in different locations with different computers test this out for me. None were able to recreate this.

This pretty much narrows it down to something in those two browsers for you, but I'm having a difficult time figuring out what it is. I feel like your browser isn't submitting post variables.

In Chrome, could you open up Developer Tools (right click, Inspect Element) and see if you receive any errors? Javascript especially. 

Michael, the following only pertains to Chrome, none of it to the problem that continues in FireFox.

I opened Developer Tools, Inspect Element in Chrome on one of the pages were I get the back arrow problem, and I didn't get any error messages. Of course I don't know how to interpret what I am seeing, so there could be errors that I do not recognize.



I Googled, "Chrome back arrow not working properly", but found nothing recent about this issue. There were apparently issues a year ago in a previous version. But several people said to make sure Google Personal Search is disabled because that was causing the problem then. So I have done that, but it made no difference at first.  I restarted Chrome.  It still made no difference.  Then I cleared the cache,  and it worked properly only ONCE.  With the very next search it went back to malfunctioning.

BTW, I am not seeing this problem with the browser back button not working in any other situations, at least not so far.

I am still having this issue in FireFox.  I thought I would try it here on the Support Forum, but I can't get any result at all searching here right now.  I used your username and came up with no resulting posts found. I'm too tired to continue looking at this tonight.  I'll try again in the morning.

[Michael]

I'll talk to the devs about this to see if they have any ideas that I've skipped over.

Search is being a bit wonky on Support right now, our sysadmin is on the case and we should have that resolved soon. I apologize for the inconvenience.

[earlene]

Now that search is working again here at the Support Boards, I thought I would try to duplicate it here, thinking maybe it was forum related. I get the same results, so it seems to have something to do with how my browsers on this machine are interfacing with ProBoards.

I will try again on my notebook and let you know what I find out. I only use it when I travel, so keep it fairly simple & haven't updated anything on it in the past three months. The browsers are surely older versions, though.

[Michael]

Mar 16, 2013 9:05:26 GMT -8 earlene said:

Now that search is working again here at the Support Boards, I thought I would try to duplicate it here, thinking maybe it was forum related. I get the same results, so it seems to have something to do with how my browsers on this machine are interfacing with ProBoards.

I will try again on my notebook and let you know what I find out. I only use it when I travel, so keep it fairly simple & haven't updated anything on it in the past three months. The browsers are surely older versions, though.

Hi,

The last and only thing that I haven't eliminated as a possibility is your browser. To be totally honest I'm out of ideas as to what could be causing this. I'm still waiting to hear if the devs have any ideas that I have missed though.

[earlene]

Mar 18, 2013 8:52:59 GMT -8 Michael said:

Mar 16, 2013 9:05:26 GMT -8 earlene said:

Now that search is working again here at the Support Boards, I thought I would try to duplicate it here, thinking maybe it was forum related. I get the same results, so it seems to have something to do with how my browsers on this machine are interfacing with ProBoards.

I will try again on my notebook and let you know what I find out. I only use it when I travel, so keep it fairly simple & haven't updated anything on it in the past three months. The browsers are surely older versions, though.

Hi,

The last and only thing that I haven't eliminated as a possibility is your browser. To be totally honest I'm out of ideas as to what could be causing this. I'm still waiting to hear if the devs have any ideas that I have missed though.

Well, I'm at a total loss. I've just spent quite a lot of time on my netbook doing the same tests over and over again and coming up with the exact same results.

Here is a synopis:

OS: Windows 7 Starter

Browsers:

Chrome 25 - back button during search malfunctions when attempting to return to the previous search results

FireFox 12 - back button during search malfunctions when attempting to return to the previous search results

IE 8 - back button works just fine (it never did malfunction here or on my laptop)


Things I tried: disabled add-ons; plug-ins; extensions - one at a time, followed by clearing cache & cookies & browser history in hopes something would help. A couple of times the back button would work correctly ONCE and only once, sort of like a false positive in a blood test. It was very annoying to think I found the culprit only to have it go back to malfunctioning with the very next search.

I also restarted the 2 browsers after each plugin; addon; extension had been disabled. I ended up completely without any of them enabled and still get the same results.

I'd stick with Internet Explorer if I could, but it's too slow when I'm using ProBoards v5, so it's just not an option. I can barely enter posts in the Visual editor at all when I'm in IE8, but I can search just fine. Go figure!

[earlene]

Okay this is now happening here at the PB Support Site.

1. search posts by staff only for the past 2 days (result is 14 pages of staff posts)
2. select one of those posts & click on it (takes me to the thread)
3. use browser back button to return to search results
4. rather than taking me back to 14 pages of search results by staff posts, I get 67 pages of 'everybody' results

N.B. Try it on a post on page 14 of the results instead of the first one on page one, as it ALWAYS happens when I do that in Firefox & in Chrome.

This happened in Firefox & Chrome. It does not happen in IE 9.

Just to be sure, I alternated steps 3 & 2 several times to be sure it wasn't happening in Internet Explorer. But in FF & Chrome, alternating between steps 3 & 2 and back again even twice or three times always results in some sort of 're-set' of the search function. It's like the search function forgets it's directions.



I have submitted a report to Chrome and hope to hear back.
I have also submitted a report to Firefox and hope to hear back.

[Michael]

Mar 21, 2013 6:15:24 GMT -8 earlene said:

Okay this is now happening here at the PB Support Site.

1. search posts by staff only for the past 2 days (result is 14 pages of staff posts)
2. select one of those posts & click on it (takes me to the thread)
3. use browser back button to return to search results
4. rather than taking me back to 14 pages of search results by staff posts, I get 67 pages of 'everybody' results

N.B. Try it on a post on page 14 of the results instead of the first one on page one, as it ALWAYS happens when I do that in Firefox & in Chrome.

This happened in Firefox & Chrome. It does not happen in IE 9.

Just to be sure, I alternated steps 3 & 2 several times to be sure it wasn't happening in Internet Explorer. But in FF & Chrome, alternating between steps 3 & 2 and back again even twice or three times always results in some sort of 're-set' of the search function. It's like the search function forgets it's directions.



I have submitted a report to Chrome and hope to hear back.
I have also submitted a report to Firefox and hope to hear back.

Ah hah! I was able to recreate it this time! I'm letting a dev know. This seems to only be recreate-able when you've moved beyond page one of the search results for some reason.

[earlene]

Thank you, Michael.

[earlene]

This has been fixed.  I have tested it in Firefox and in Chrome, and the back buttons are working as expected after  navigating through the search results.

Thank you Michael, for your perseverance.