I am currently building an internal web application used in a factory/warehouse type location. The users will be sharing a single PC between several people, so we need to have a fairly short session timeout to stop people wandering off and leaving the application logged in where someone else can come to the PC and do something under the previous user’s username.
The problem with this is a session can timeout while a user is currently entering information into a form, especially if they take a long time.
How would you deal with this in a user friendly manner?
Keep the server informed about the fact that the user is actively entering information. For instance send a message to the server if the user presses the TAB key or clicks with a mouse on a field. The final solution is up to you.