ISSUE-246

Returning to previous User Agent State might not be possible

State:

CLOSED

Product:

wsc-xit

Raised by:

Thomas Roessler

Opened on:

2010-04-10

Description:

From LC-2381 [1]:

>>>>

> user agents SHOULD enable the user to easily return to the user agent state prior to initiation of the last user interaction that led to the error signal.

If a web page involves submitting a form (POST) to a broken site, or
if the previous page the user was on is the result of a POST, then
trying to let the user return to the previous state is hard, risky,
dangerous, or perhaps simply impossible. SHOULD is perhaps too strong
given this. It's also possible that the last "user" action happened
long before the web page randomly contorted itself and then redirected
to the broke site, in which case "returning" to the state where the
user last interacted is impossible (javascript doesn't support
rollblack...).

<<<<

During its conference call 2010-03-31 [2], the WG resolved to address this issue by updating conformance clause #LXXIII [3] as follows:

>>>>

They SHOULD NOT tell the user to enter the destination site that caused the error, e.g., to provide feedback or obtain assistance. For error messages that interrupt the user's flow of interaction, user agents SHOULD enable the user to easily return to the page that the user was previously interacting with. Note that this ideally implies returning to the previous user agent state -- including the results of user input and dynamic processing --; however, this may not be feasible under all circumstances.

<<<<

1. http://www.w3.org/2006/02/lc-comments-tracker/39814/WD-wsc-ui-20100309/2381
2. http://www.w3.org/2010/03/31-wsc-minutes
3. http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#LXXIII

Related Actions Items:

No related actions

Related emails:

1. Fw: Transition Request: WSC user interface guidelines to proposed recommendation (from mzurko@us.ibm.com on 2010-05-12)
2. Minutes WSC Apr 21 (from janv@opera.com on 2010-04-21)
3. Re: ACTION-644: Summary of Last Call Comments (from mzurko@us.ibm.com on 2010-04-12)
4. ACTION-644: Summary of Last Call Comments (from tlr@w3.org on 2010-04-11)
5. ISSUE-246: Returning to previous User Agent State might not be possible [wsc-xit] (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2010-04-10)

Related notes:

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