"You're not logged in" dialog upon submit breaks autofill

Uh, I am logged out and I try to post, then the dialog box comes up, so I go to the 1P button and click restore form then the one getsatisfaction.com entry, the system goes "DONK", and nothing happens. I go to login at the very top right of the screen, use the 1password fill button, and it works fine.

You're right. It isn't working in firefox currently. It does work in Safari though, and it has worked for firefox in the past. I would bring that particular issue up with the 1passwd guys.

A preview page is something we've talked about in the past, but we haven't made had any firm plans to implement one.

1Password is an extension that I don't use, and I see this issue too. The issue is how Fx3 now looks for un/pw combos, it's a different mechanism than in the past that now will catch ones that it didn't used to. However, the Ajaxiness of the login stuff when I click Post Reply here means Fx didn't see the form on load. That's the problem, not some other extension.

It might be more productive to frame things this way; The Ajax popup login is baked not only into the technology of the site, more importantly it is baked into most of the design. We rely on it in so many places besides just the posting process that having a preview page would really only solve a minor chunk of where this problem is cropping up.

In all honesty, the Ajax login is probably here to stay barring something more meaningful than auto-fill bug. Not meaning to make light the issue, since i'm sure it is frustrating, but at the current point the benefit of having the ajax popup far outweighs the frustration of the auto-fill bug, IMO.

Given that, and given that you could very arguably characterize this as a browser bug or an extension bug, I would recommend asking them if they could find a resolution to the issue. Thomas, I'm sure you've got the ear of some enterprising firefox developers that could help you resolve the issue with an improvement to the auto-fill code. If it could be boiled down to something as simple as telling FF to search for forms again with a javascript call, that would be totally doable.

Other than that, I would either recommend using the normal sign in page, or simply checking the 'remember me' check box.

---

Or, as i'm sure eric would say: just use safari :p

Your answer of it being "baked in" is somewhat of a cop out. The login is not "baked into" anything. There's no way you're going to convince any competent person that you can't fix that issue. I grok that your design philosophy likes the dynamism afforded by AJAX, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. But there's nothing preventing you from including it in the page and hiding it with CSS and only showing it when needed, as opposed to calling it later as you do now. Login boxes that work for your customers is more important than a design philosophy.

I COULD say this is a browser bug, indeed. However, I can, and do, also say this is a site bug, as your design is not working with a feature that even BANKS manage to get right. If a bank can do it, you folks sure as hell can too. To sluff this off as a browser bug is really lame. How many years did we bend out code into pretzels to work with IE's broken parsing?

Checking the remember me box doesn't work all the time as I don't come here daily.

The point here isn't who is to blame, the point is it doesn't work, and you have the power to fix it. As a web dev, I know first hand how much it may suck to do that, but it's for the good of your users. It won't look any different to anyone, but you'll know that the login isn't dynamic like everything else, and that'll be a burr under your saddle, but that's the life of a web dev. So please don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. Trying to bluff with lame reasons just makes you look bad when you wind up bluffing a knowledgeable person.

Lastly, tell Eric that advising someone to use Safari is like telling them to cutoff their toe because they lost their toenail clipper. That's even more lame than the "baked in" line.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Settle down, I wasn't diverting blame, I was trying to find a passable solution for you.

Your answer of it being "baked in" is somewhat of a cop out. The login is not "baked into" anything. There's no way you're going to convince any competent person that you can't fix that issue.

Did I _ever_ say that It was impossible for me to fix the issue? You must realize though, I don't work in a time warp, and time spent replacing code is time spent away from adding tools for companies or features for customers. There are priorities that must be set and goals that must be achieved for this business to be a success. The unfortunate reality is that re-writing the login form probably won't be able to be fitted into the schedule in the short term.

I grok that your design philosophy likes the dynamism afforded by AJAX, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. But there's nothing preventing you from including it in the page and hiding it with CSS and only showing it when needed, as opposed to calling it later as you do now.

And we had things that way up until maybe 6 months ago. It was deemed necessary to customize the login form in ever increasing ways based on the context the user was in, and we so we made the decision get the code back to maintainability (it was rats nest), we would move that login to the server side, realizing that we would probably be doing that more in the future.

I COULD say this is a browser bug, indeed. However, I can, and do, also say this is a site bug, as your design is not working with a feature that even BANKS manage to get right. If a bank can do it, you folks sure as hell can too.

That's not productive at all. I could very easily say that if 1Passwd on safari could do it, Mozilla sure as hell can too. I mean, there company with 70 million in annual revenue, they certainly have more developer time than me, and this is certainly a trivial bug. See how unfair that sounds.

To sluff this off as a browser bug is really lame.

I'm not sluffing it off at all; I'm trying to help you find a passable solution that works for you and fits into my already over booked schedule. I'm sorry if you think that is a copout.

The point here isn't who is to blame, the point is it doesn't work, and you have the power to fix it. As a web dev, I know first hand how much it may suck to do that, but it's for the good of your users. It won't look any different to anyone, but you'll know that the login isn't dynamic like everything else, and that'll be a burr under your saddle, but that's the life of a web dev. So please don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. Trying to bluff with lame reasons just makes you look bad when you wind up bluffing a knowledgeable person.

Tell me again, where did I _ever_ say I didn't have the ability to fix this? I _did_ say, in this post, that there were extenuating circumstances that guided implementation into it's current form. I also mentioned that we are incredibly short on time. I'm sorry if you misunderstood that as this will never get happened, I was simply trying to communicate that the change is expensive, relatively, and will in all likelyhood not see a meaningful resolution on our side in the near term.

Please stay away from the insults. I've been civil, and I'm not allowed fire back, and I'm working trying to find a workable solution for you. I'm not pissing on you, and I'm not trying to bluff.

Lastly, tell Eric that advising someone to use Safari is like telling them to cutoff their toe because they lost their toenail clipper. That's even more lame than the "baked in" line.

It was a fucking joke, for Eric's benefit. Chill out.

Where did you say that? "The Ajax popup login is baked not only into the technology of the site, more importantly it is baked into most of the design." Right there.

I totally agree that if safari and 1pw can do it, Firefox should be able to as well. That is a 100% legit line of argument. But I already conceded that. You know that frequently we as web devs need to make up for browsers' shortfalls.

I get schedules, too. But I'd rather have you say, "We'd love to address this issue, but right now we have an already full schedule, and I don't know when we'll squeeze this issue in right now," than pass the buck. That was my key point.

I never said you couldn't fix it. I said you were trying to handwave away the issue.

Lastly, I didn't insult you at all, I just stated that saying "we don't have this as a priority right now due to other larger issues we're working on" is better than puffery. My comment about safari was also a joke. I would offer a chill pill to you too but that was my last one, and the bottle is in my other parachute pants.

Right there.

I was talking about the "Don't tell me you can't fix it" line you posted.

We'd love to address this issue, but right now we have an already full schedule, and I don't know when we'll squeeze this issue in right now.

In no way did I mean to dismiss the bug. I apologize for that.

What, everyone doesn't use Internet Explorer 5.2.3 for Mac?



Also why does it say I need Flash?

FYI, Eric: http://getsatisfaction.com/plurk/topi... ;)