Should I ditch Joomla! or what?
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- VitalBodies.com
- Sr. Rocketeer
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Joomla Site:
http://www.17lakesrealestate.com/shop
Problem:
If you do search >
Click on a listing >
Look at the listing >
Then click the BACK button you might get an error in IE or a warning in Firefox.
GENERIC: Search_form.php POST > Search_results.php > Search_details.php > BACK to Search_results.php and we get an error.
LINKS TO MORE INFO:
http://shiflett.org/articles/how-to-avoid-page-has-expired-warnings
BACKGROUND: This is a classic issue. But a hard one to find the answer to. If you help, you will also be helping others as many are searching for the resolve. I do not think this is Joomla specific nor related to a template. It is a known problem of IE but there are ways to fix this in ones code or some kind of work around.
The general scenario is that if the search form uses the POST command then one can have this issue. Using the GET command one does not have this issue. Not everyone can just shift from POST to GET. It is not that clear what all is involved in doing so to new folks can make the shift.
MY ISSUE: My Search Form uses the POST command and sends the data to a different page with PHP code in it.
That works, but if you go from that page with the general results of the search (the general results might have 25 properties for sale for example) and click on one property so you can see the details of that property - that works also. But if you click the BACK button that is where the problem is. IE is known to not allow the POST data to be resent so the page can load again.
Help using the POST command would be nice or help shifting to the GET command would be equally helpful. It is understood that one can just change the word POST to GET but that is not enough on my site as the search form page just reloads rather than bringing up the search results. - Last Edit: 15 years 9 months ago by VitalBodies.com.
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http://www.VitalBodies.com
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- VitalBodies.com
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 202
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FROM:
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html
17.13 Form submission
The following sections explain how user agents submit form data to form processing agents.
17.13.1 Form submission method
The method attribute of the FORM element specifies the HTTP method used to send the form to the processing agent. This attribute may take two values:
* get: With the HTTP "get" method, the form data set is appended to the URI specified by the action attribute (with a question-mark ("?") as separator) and this new URI is sent to the processing agent.
* post: With the HTTP "post" method, the form data set is included in the body of the form and sent to the processing agent.
The "get" method should be used when the form is idempotent (i.e., causes no side-effects). Many database searches have no visible side-effects and make ideal applications for the "get" method.
If the service associated with the processing of a form causes side effects (for example, if the form modifies a database or subscription to a service), the "post" method should be used.
Note. The "get" method restricts form data set values to ASCII characters. Only the "post" method (with enctype="multipart/form-data") is specified to cover the entire [ISO10646] character set. -
http://www.VitalBodies.com
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- VitalBodies.com
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In order to change to GET one might need to know a little about PHP in a beginner way. This site might help:
www.w3schools.com/php/php_get.asp
The page I linked is not super helpful but there are a lot of simple examples on the many pages of the site that as a whole might help.
Anyone out have a fav PHP site? -
http://www.VitalBodies.com
Organic, Eco, Vital and Sustainable...
http://www.VitalBodies.net
Web Site Design - Green, W3C and Open Source...
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- VitalBodies.com
- Sr. Rocketeer
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A different but related question:
If one changes the default search settings >
Does a search >
Clicks the back button >
And then all of the search settings they changed are now lost back to the defaults... Ugg.
What is W3C way of preserving those setting for the user.
And the all of ones search setting are now lost back to the defaults, what is W3C way of preserving those setting for the user.
Example: One might choose to search for Commercial rather than the default Residential and look for a maximum like $200K rather than $225K. It is lame to go back and have all your settings erased.
Anyone have suggestions or links that they like?
What would a STRICT XHTML W3C purist do? - Last Edit: 15 years 9 months ago by VitalBodies.com.
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http://www.VitalBodies.com
Organic, Eco, Vital and Sustainable...
http://www.VitalBodies.net
Web Site Design - Green, W3C and Open Source...
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- Ragdata
- Elite Rocketeer
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- Software Engineer
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My friend, you are the MASTER of bumping posts without making it look like an obvious bump
That said, you always keep looking for your own answer and don't sit back on your haunches hoping that your forum mates will do all your work for you - so kudos for that!
With reference to having search options erased - I believe this is browser-dependant. I've not come across anything we can do as developers to stop IE from losing all that data (Firefox remembers it fine).
As far as the POST problem, I'd suggest a bit of a sideways glance. Why don't you modify the search results page so that each listing opens in a new window or tab rather than having your visitor navigate away from the results page? - Ragdata's Rubber Duck
www.ragdata.net/
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- VitalBodies.com
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 202
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My understanding is that IE considers the data a security risk and deliberately acts accordingly.
Thus, putting the risk on the user by forcing them to do a refresh and then clicking a button saying they are accepting the risk.
I have heard of methods that one can use to change the way the data cache is handled using PHP commands. You have to know enough about PHP to write or use that code though which I do not. I do get the sense that it is a very simple one to four lines of code though and all one has to do is paste it in. I do not have IE so it is harder for me to test. This is my first Joomla site so it is more than a stretch for me grasp what the repercussions are of such caching or not does.
This problem is challenging enough that I did not figure I would get a response even if I bumped the post so I committed to just keeping my notes here. I posted the problem on the Joomla Forum and got no response either. But as long as I have a reputation of being the MASTER of bumping posts perhaps I should ride with that.
Your idea however, of using target="_blank" is a very nice work around and might provide an overall better user experience. In Strict XHTML you can not use the target="_blank" but Joomla tends to only be TRANSITIONAL. I usually only write strict code so I do not use the target="_blank" or think about it much.
Very nice, simple, elegant idea thank you. - Last Edit: 15 years 9 months ago by VitalBodies.com.
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http://www.VitalBodies.com
Organic, Eco, Vital and Sustainable...
http://www.VitalBodies.net
Web Site Design - Green, W3C and Open Source...
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- VitalBodies.com
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- Posts: 202
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That leaves one last side problem that I think might have a common solution.
A different but related question:I thought that there was a way to preserve the users search settings.
If one changes the default search settings >
Does a search >
Clicks the back button >
And then all of the search settings they changed are now lost back to the defaults... Ugg.
What is W3C way of preserving those setting for the user.
Example: One might choose to search for Commercial rather than the default Residential and look for a maximum like $200K rather than $225K. It is lame to go back and have all your settings erased.
Anyone have suggestions or links that they like?
What would a STRICT XHTML W3C purist do?
If they change the defaults and click the back button they should not have to start over. I did not figure anyone would take the time to explain it all to me but thought you all might know of a site or a KEYWORD search term for finding the answer. The problem on my side is that I have not worked with forms much. I know enough to edit or style them but not all the details.
If I had to guess I would think my options might be Javascript, PHP, XFORMS or... not sure what else. I did not see anything at first glance in the XHTML spec. Perhaps the place to start is with some kind of webmaster accessibility sites but I am open to suggestions. -
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Web Site Design - Green, W3C and Open Source...
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- Ragdata
- Elite Rocketeer
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- Software Engineer
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Well there you go ... again, you've promted me to do some research and I've learned something.
The following line of PHP is reported to help - but where to put it in a Joomla installation in order to avoid a "Headers already sent" error will be the trick. I'd try the top of Joomla's main index.php file.
header("Cache-control: private"); - Ragdata's Rubber Duck
www.ragdata.net/
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- VitalBodies.com
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 202
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Did you get the sense that you need to use session or not with that?
I read this twice:LINKS TO MORE INFO:But I just did not quite get it. I tried a number of things but figured I was too naive with PHP or Joomla or the combination of the two...
http://shiflett.org/articles/how-to-avoid-page-has-expired-warnings
Maybe I did not put the code in the right place? Above the Doc type, in the head, in the search results, in the form...
Did you get a sense of where that error shows up, like on the page or hidden in the headers? - Last Edit: 15 years 9 months ago by VitalBodies.com.
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http://www.VitalBodies.com
Organic, Eco, Vital and Sustainable...
http://www.VitalBodies.net
Web Site Design - Green, W3C and Open Source...
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- Ragdata
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- Software Engineer
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The example you've provided here deals with a slightly different issue than the one I understand you to be having - but, interestingly, it may provide a better solution with regard to Joomla.
The article you've linked reveals that starting a php session (as Joomla does) will automatically result in headers being sent to the browser that prevent caching. With reference to my last post, forcing a header in this case MAY be ineffective.
This article suggests that a better approach may be to force the header via a php.ini directive, since this will also eliminate the pragma header.
Now, I'm honestly not sure what the effect of setting this directive before or after the session has been established in the main Joomla index.php file will be - so you may need to try both. Insert this line instead in your main Joomla index.php file:
ini_set('session.cache_limiter', 'private');
EDIT: sorry - just noticed this in your post. The error will not appear on the page - but in a browser dialogue box. - Ragdata's Rubber Duck
www.ragdata.net/
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