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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-18T23:48:37+00:00

We have a jquery/php/mysql system that allows a user to log in and review

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We have a jquery/php/mysql system that allows a user to log in and review videos built by a system for online viewing. When a user begins reviewing a video, the video is marked as such. But now we’ve cornered ourselves into the classic browser-based application problem of the user navigating away or closing the browser without completing review. That video would then enter a state of limbo of constantly being reviewed, but never completed, and never re-entering the queue.

Options we have are:

  • Build a service (which we already have others) to find review sessions that are outside a duration boundary and reset them back into the queue.
  • Reset review sessions outside a duration boundary when that user logs in. Essentially, if a user locks out a video for review, it’ll be unlocked the next time they log in.
  • A suggestion made to me was to use the php/apache session length and on expiration, reset any pending review jobs. I don’t even know where to look to implement this as this is one project on a shared server, so it shouldn’t be an apache config, but the reset mechanism would need to know the database credentials to be able to reset it…
  • The worst solution everyone hates is preventing the user from navigating away with javascript, asking “Are you sure?!”

This system is used by a few hired reviewers, so I’m not exactly dealing with the public here, but I can’t prevent users from sharing logins for speedier review, which would knock out the 2nd option above because it would unlock a video being reviewed by someone else using the same login.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There are two good options that won’t tax your server. Either:

    1. Run a cron-job every hour looking for review sessions that are outside of the duration boundary. This has the advantage of being transparent to the end user. But it’s possible to kill an active session if you’re not careful (Suppose the user is operating in multiple tabs).

    2. Prevent users from navigating away with JS. Honestly, this is what I would do since the user is reviewing the video (if they were just viewing it, that would be bad, but since they know they are supposed to be acting, it’s ok). Just say If you leave now, the review will be canceled, are you sure?.

    Honestly, I’d do option #2. SO uses it, and it works well here. It wouldn’t be for every page, just those where there’s an active review going on…

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