I. E. and the nervous finger, a question

[Keith M. Davie]

I do not find this a problem from clients using NN, however those clients using the cumbersomely slow browser I. E. and who exhibit the "nervous finger" (i.e., several clicks on any button or link) can easily create two new records containing the same data, except data created by FileMaker uniquely for each record.

Sure, if you are using FMPro 5.0 you can set one field for a unique requirement which will keep two records from being created in this manner. Yet if you do that, the nervous fingered client can create a record but be informed by the error page that the record was not created, though the client can be informed that the transaction was successful as well. And there seems to be no way to know which message (-format or -error) the client will or did receive.

If informed that the transaction was not successful, and yet a record was created, when the client now attempts to enter the same data, the client will always get the error page. Good way to offend (lose) the client.

Is this a problem unique to FileMaker, or do other web-capable programs experience the same problem with the nervous-fingered I.E. client? Does anyone here have any experience to answer this?

How do you folks handle this problem?

[Vaughan]

My understanding is this: if a record created by Web Companion fails validation, Web Companion will try to delete it.

However very often Web Companion is set up with no delete privileges, which means it creates the new record, validates it, displays the error page, then tries to delete it but cannot so leaves the record there (no choice).

Look at your setup: I'll bet the password only allows browse and export. Try allowing delete and it'll probably do what you expect.

[Jeff Spall]

Hi, I've been using a free Javascript from: http://javascript.internet.com/forms/submit-once.html

which only allows the user to submit the form once.

This one also checks that the fields are valid, but you can strip that part of the code out if you wish.

regards, Jeff

[Keith M. Davie]

Vaughan, FYI this is in FMP 5 and delete is allowed along with browse, edit, script and create. When a client double clicks on I.E., FMP attempts to create a record for each click. Because of the "unique" field requirement in 5.0, only one record will be created, the second request will fail the unique requirement and no record will be created. However, it is not possible to predict which result (-format or -error) will be generated. And there is no attempt to delete the record which was created since it met the creation criteria.

For developers who are unaware of this problem, it is really easy to test this for yourself. If you have not allowed for this situation you probably would be advised to take some precaution. Web clients who are frustrated by records which do nothing but frustrate the client who inadvertently creates the problem, are not likely to let you know you have a problem. They don't understand what is occuring themselves. They are then more likely to look to a competitor for the product or service being offered.

Jeff, thanks for the link. I will check that out. Javascript has its uses. One seems to be to over-ride the poor design of I.E.

Does anyone know if this "nervous finger" and I. E. is a problem with other db applications which run in the background of the web?

[Keith M. Davie]

The link Jeff provided proved the trick. Thanks again Jeff. Was able to edit out quite a bit and just go with the single-click part.

It may well be that IE works better on a pc, but what helped lead me to this problem was I have a friend who used IE to order something over the web and he thought the submission had not been made so he clicked again. Turns out he submitted two orders. It made me recall an experience of a few years back when I submitted some data and it was returned under a different name. I doubt that either was FMPro based.

This just helps to show how much different testing we must perform to create problem free results.

[Anatoli]

I do not understand what is this about fully. Maybe on Mac IE has problems, which are not in PC version.

OK, but I can see the problem, or the implication and Keith put that very nicely.

I am usually submitting forms via JavaScript. I fired up FM, have IE form in window on local machine and I did manage to click 3 times before the IE shows second screen.

No validation was done on FM side, not Required fields.

FM created only 1 single record and not 3.

The code I am using on submit button is:

javascript:document.newform.submit()

The form name is "newform"

You need to specify -new or -edit in hidden input tag

Will that help?