[whatwg] question about the popstate event

[Brady Eidson]

On Jan 12, 2010, at 7:30 PM, Justin Lebar wrote:

> As I understand it, the crux of his argument relates to the algorithm
> to "update the session history with the new page" [1]:
> 
>>   2) If the navigation was initiated for entry update of an entry
>> 
>>      1) Replace the entry being updated with a new entry representing
>>         the new resource and its Document object and related state.
> 
> I think he's arguing that the set of "related state" that is copied to
> the new entry does not contain the state object.  His evidence for
> this is mostly textual: This state is referenced in other parts of the
> spec, and in those places, it's made clear that the state consists of
> scroll position and form fields:
> 
> (From comment #4 at https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33224)
>> I believe "state" in this context is not referring to "state objects", but
>> rather "persisted user state" as set forth in 5.11.9 step 3:
>> "For example, some user agents might want to persist the scroll position, or
>> the values of form controls."
> 
> I think this is a good point from a textual perspective.

My debate with Darin has so far primarily been about how one reads the spec, and this is most certainly how I've read it.

> <long rant about why state objects should survive document unload, and that state objects are pointless if they don't>

I think you're totally right.  As I've been discussing the spec with Darin in email and the webkit.org bug I've basically come to the same conclusion.

That said...

> Where the spec needs to be clarified to support this, I think it
> should be.  But let's first agree that this is the right thing to do.

The discussion between Darin and I was about my interpretation of the spec, what I implemented based on that interpretation, and how his interpretation was different.  

I think we're now in agreement on what it *should* be, I think the spec should be explicit about it, and I think the ambiguity between "state," "state object,", and "persisted user state" is what might've led us all to misread the other's positions. 

"Entry with persisted user state" is already used quite explicitly in two places, but needs application in key place at the end of 6.11.1.

2 - If the navigation was initiated for entry update of an entry:
	1 - Replace the entry being updated with a new entry representing the new resource and its Document object and related state. The user agent may propagate state from the old entry to the new entry (e.g. scroll position).

might read:

2 - If the navigation was initiated for entry update of an entry:
	1 - Replace the entry being updated with a new entry representing the new resource and its Document object.  If the entry being updated is a state object entry the user agent must propagate the state object to the new entry.  The user agent may propagate persisted user state from the old entry to the new entry (e.g. scroll position).

Thoughts?

~Brady

PS:  On a related note...

> If I'm understanding the bug correctly, Brady is suggesting not that a
> popstate event isn't fired when we navigate back to a document which
> has been unloaded from memory, but that the state object in that
> popstate event is null.

My argument was actually indeed, that the event is not fired at all.  But as I hit up the spec to present my reasoning why, I discovered that 6.11.9 step 10 basically says that popstate events are fired for *ANY* history traversal except for fragment scrolls between non-state-object entries.

So my argument shifts to what you say - the state object in that event is null.  This was just sloppy reading on my part.

That we don't currently fire the popstate event in such cases is a WebKit bug that I have filed as https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33571


> -Justin
> 
> [1] http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/history.html#update-the-session-history-with-the-new-page
> 
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Darin Fisher <darin at chromium.org> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I've been discussing this issue with Brady Eidson over
>> at https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33224,
>> and his interpretation appears to be different.  (I think he may have
>> convinced me too.)
>> I'd really like some help understanding how pushState is intended to work
>> and to see how that lines up
>> with the spec.
>> Also, assuming Brady is correct, then I wonder why pushState was designed
>> this way.  It seems strange
>> to me that entries in session history would disappear when you navigate away
>> from a document that used
>> pushState.
>> -Darin
>> 
>> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 6:55 PM, Justin Lebar <justin.lebar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> From my reading of the spec, I would expect the following steps:
>>>> 5. Page A is loaded.
>>>> 6. The load event for Page A is dispatched.
>>>> 7. The popstate event for Page A is dispatched.
>>> 
>>> I think this is correct.  A popstate event is always dispatched
>>> whenever a new session history entry is activated (6.10.3).
>>> 
>>> -Justin
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 4:53 PM, Darin Fisher <darin at chromium.org> wrote:
>>>> I'd like to make sure that I'm understanding the spec for pushState and
>>>> the
>>>> popstate event properly.
>>>> Suppose, I have the following sequence of events:
>>>> 1. Page A is loaded.
>>>> 2. Page A calls pushState("foo", null).
>>>> 3. The user navigates to Page B.
>>>> 4. The user navigates back to Page A (clicks the back button once).
>>>> Assuming the document of Page A was disposed upon navigation to Page B
>>>> (i.e., that it was not preserved in a page cache), should a popstate
>>>> event
>>>> be generated as a result of step 4?
>>>> From my reading of the spec, I would expect the following steps:
>>>> 5. Page A is loaded.
>>>> 6. The load event for Page A is dispatched.
>>>> 7. The popstate event for Page A is dispatched.
>>>> Do I understand correctly?
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> -Darin
>> 
>>