OT: I have a simple 'contact-us' webapp that has been running for
years. I'm not having any problems with it directly. However,
periodically, I get resubmissions of the form from the client's
computer, sometimes randomly once a day for several days/weeks, and
sometimes once or twice two weeks after the original form was
submitted. The obvious answer to this would be that the client just
keeps hitting the back button and resubmitting the form. But I know
that is not the case. I have a little javascript snippit that sets the
current date in a hidden field when the user hits the submit button
(spam robots don't recognize this, so spam-robot-submissions will not
have a valid date in the hidden field). When these random form
resubmissions come in they have the original date/time in that hidden
field from when they actually requested and submitted the form.
So what I know at this point:
1) This is rare. But when it starts with a particular form, I'll get
resubmissions anywhere from once ever few hours to once every couple of
weeks.
2) It finally stops. But one specific form kept coming in once a day
(random time each day) for over 2 months (still with original date/time
from two months earlier in that hidden field)
3) I checked the apache httpd logs, and the resubmissions are coming
from the original user's IP address. They are definitely coming in as a
new request each time to apache/tomcat (as opposed to my webapp code
somehow reprocessing the original request)
4) The user is NOT hitting the submit button over and over as proven by
the time/date in the hidden field.
I have written defensive code in my webapp to detect this situation and
handle it. So it's not a critical problem now. But it just frustrates
me that I have no clue what is going on. And I'm curious if the users
are seeing something strange as this is occurring. It appears that the
client's browser is holding onto the form and just randomly resending it
the server without the user's knowledge. And it finally stops when they
close their browser or reboot their computer. I know this makes zero sense.
So.... I know this is not precisely tomcat related. But I know this
forum has followers with a vast range of knowledge in many areas. I'm
just curious if this rings any bells, or if anyone can explain what is
going on here. Anybody know what would cause a browser to keep randomly
resending a form request to the server?
Thanks.
Jerry
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