Question

The scenario is this. A web page contains:

• some DIVs whose visibility can be toggled with a javascript (fired from an hyperlink)
• a Submit button, whose response takes about 5 seconds

The hyperlink code is

<a href='javascript:void null;' onclick='MyFunction()'>foo</a> 

The User:

1. Presses Submit.
2. While he is waiting for the response, he clicks on the hyperlink, and fires the javascript that toggles the DIVs visibility (no other request is performed).
3. In Internet Exporer 6, the browser stops waiting for the first Request.

The problem does not happen in other browsers, even if the user plays with the DIVs, the first request is correctly handled, and we navigate to the next page.

Does anyone know what might be causing this? Is it a known IE6 issue?

Answer 1

Yup, this is the IE6 issue with GET requests triggered from a Javascript action on a hyperlink (where the href is set to ‘javascript:…’).

e.g. if your JavaScript calls someForm.submit() and the method is GET, there will be NO response (the request is definately sent though)

http://webbugtrack.blogspot.com/2007/09/bug-223-magical-http-get-requests-in.html

You either need to modify the link, to be like:

<a href='#bogushash' onclick='MyFunction()'>foo</a>          ^^^^^^^^^^ 

or always set the link with return false;

<a href='javascript:void null;' onclick='MyFunction();return false;'>foo</a>                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^