Session timed out - lost entire blog posting

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dmw

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#18199 1-Jan-2008 13:46

I just finished writing a long blog posting.

It involved a little research, a lot of thinking, and some editing to get it just right.

Then, I pressed the "Submit" button and got that horrible sinking feeling when you realise that your session has timed out, and nothing has been sent.

Don't Panic! Just press the "Back" button and it'll all be there.

Nope.

Arggggggghhhh!!

What do I do now? Is it somewhere in the memory (2GB of RAM, Vista Ultimate), in my browser cache (less likely, because I had not pressed submit before)...?

rscole86

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#102474 1-Jan-2008 13:58

Sorry, but you are going to have to write it again.

In the future, you should maybe write it up in word/notepad etc so that you can save it..

cokemaster

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#102479 1-Jan-2008 14:19

Some browsers such as firefox or Opera remember what you've entered into a form, so you can go back and there it is.

webhosting

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sleemanj

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#102485 1-Jan-2008 14:49

I don't think you are going to get it back somehow :-(

But that's a bug that really ticks me off on websites, it's just a sign of poor design because it's a completely trivial problem to prevent.

The system should either retain all transmitted request data on a request-after-timeout and "represent" it to itself once you complete the required reauthentication, or for an even simpler (but less robust) solution, incorporate a heart beat signaller using javascript (and XMLHttpRequest, or some such) onto pages which may be vulnerable to timeout.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

dmw

59 posts

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#102487 1-Jan-2008 15:10

You're right that it is a major nasty -- and totally contrary to what the user "expects". We do not expect to lose data.

My other frustration is that I have a vague recollection of reading someone's blog, where this had happened to them, and by some clever means (eg searching through a RAM dump?) they found their lost text. But I can't find that posting either!

freitasm

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#102498 1-Jan-2008 17:10

If you have the auto-login enabled it should not happen like this...

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