DSpace 7: Page jumps during submission

[f-rapp]

Describe the bug
During submission, the page sometimes "jumps" and users have to navigate back to where they were before the jump (scroll up/down). We noticed the page jumps occur when DSpace caches the submission (the caching is visible at the bottom of the page).

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

• Start a submission and fill in the fields
• At some point when DSpace caches, the page "jumps". It may be that there are additional factors which need to be in place for the page to jump.

We have heard from other institutions that face the same problem and do not have a solution for this issue so far.

Expected behavior
When DSpace caches a submission, the page does not "jump".

Related work
Link to any related tickets or PRs here.

[alanorth]

@f-rapp I've noticed this too. Do you have type binding enabled in your submission form by any chance?

Some other factors could be: when you have more than one submission step. We have three, and DSpace attempts to auto save when the users moves between them, and the page jumps to the bottom.

[f-rapp]

@alanorth Yes, we use type binding in our submission form. We also have more than one submission step.

[alanorth]

Oh yeah, this jumpiness is the minor issue. The major issue is that when it jumps, the previously selected values are cleared. It is very reproducible for me on DSpace 7.6.1 in Firefox:

Screencast.from.2024-01-30.11-38-39.webm

You can see me skip to the third "Describe" step and try to select values in some drop downs. When I move back to the second step the autosave kicks in and clears the field, jumping sometimes and others not. Is this the same experience you have @f-rapp?

I think this is a high-priority issue because it makes submission nearly impossible unless you are VERY persistent and meticulous about the order you complete the submission form.

[f-rapp]

I have tested this again and while we have the jumps, I didn't find any cleared values.

[alanorth]

I'm testing again and the "cleared values" bug is actually a side-effect of recently merged #2733. It is not related to the jumping submission form in this issue.

[f-rapp]

Hi @alanorth, does the patch above also solve the jumping issue?

[alanorth]

Hi @f-rapp. No that patch does not fix the jumping...