Question

I have a moronic customer that does not seem to understand the English text in an alert that instructs him that his data was saved successfully. He continually presses the submit button and inserts a new row of data into the database. Can anyone suggest a solution to prevent this please? I am using jQuery to submit the data so there is no refresh.

Answer 1

Generate a unique token on the page from which the insert is occurring in a hidden field that will be posted when the form is submitted. Store this token in the database somewhere. When a post containing that token is processed, mark that token has having been consumed if it hasn’t already been marked. If a post with a token that has already been consumed is seen, refuse to process it and present the user with an error (or redirect to an edit/update page so they can make changes).

EDIT: based on comments

If you need multiple inserts from the same page, then presumably you have some input fields that contain the new data. When you go to submit the data, put up a modal dialog that says “please wait while I update your data”. This will prevent the user from doing any actions while the update is happening. When the update returns successfully clear the input fields and dismiss the dialog. If the request takes too long, dismiss the dialog, show an error, and leave the data in the fields for re-submission.