Here is the javascript function I used to disable the link that people often click more than once:

 function disable_links(){ 

// this function disables all the links on the page 

  for(var i=0; i < document.links.length;i++)

  {

      document.links[i].onclick=function () { return false; }

      document.links[i].title = "The exam has been submitted. Please wait for results page";

  }

  return true;

}

12:52:50 PM    comment []

For two weeks I had this really frustrating problem:

When users submitted the online fisheries exam, sometimes they would get an error page while the results would be emailed with no problems. I kept testing it and never got the error. I wondered if the database was crapping out because of too many open connections, I wondered about browsers caching error pages.

Then I watched someone submit the exam. They were like, "it sometimes takes several clicks before it submits"..... click click click. It is second nature to me not to submit a form more than once, no matter how long it takes the server to process the form.

 So, when testing, click all the buttons more than once, because it's a sure bet your users will.

In any case, there should be some code that handles this problem, but I didn't write the thing, I just inherited it.

9:39:39 AM    comment []