Uploaded image for project: 'SimplyE 2.0'
  1. SimplyE 2.0
  2. SIMPLY-3292

OE: "Connection error" displayed in catalog page when Clever token expires

XMLWordPrintable

    • SIMPLY S24 Nov 10 - 24, SIMPLY S25 Nov 24 - Dec 8, SIMPLY Sprint 26 Dec 8 - 22
    • 5

      This is a variation of SIMPLY-3271 that is more serious on OE.

      If you logged in with Clever and your auth token expired, the catalog won't load and just show a generic connection error. The retry button won't do anything because the token is expired. Loans, downloading, etc won't work either, except the My Books tab still shows your books for some reason (probably cached). On the Settings page the user appears still logged in.

      The problem is that we can't simply refetch the token as in the barcode flows: we need to get it from Clever i.e. in Safari. I can think of solving this in a couple ways but there are some UX implications that I don't want to assume/ignore.

      Assuming there is a unique way to understand the situation on the client (e.g. checking for 401 statuses, or response.MIMEtype, or problem_document.type == `http://librarysimplified.org/terms/problem/credentials-invalid`), on the client we could:

      1. forcibly sign out the user and direct them to the Settings tab. The advantage of this is that there's no ambiguity on what is happening, but it is more disruptive.

      2. Or, open the modal sign-in modal in place (e.g in the Catalog tab): I believe this was done for SAML in a few pages (it is not centralized), but not for Clever, but I don't think it's working correctly for SAML either. Ideally the panel opens, user clicks Clever -> Login, is redirected to Safari, comes back and is signed-in.

      The 2nd option is a little more complex but it is partially implemented, while the 1st seems more robust in general. The estimate is roughly 1-3 days for both.

      Risa Wolf I'm leaning towards fixing #2 because it seems better for the user, but since this has been flaky I'm wondering if we are open to #1 in case flakiness persists.

            risawolf Risa Wolf
            EttorePasquini Ettore Pasquini
            Votes:
            0 Vote for this issue
            Watchers:
            3 Start watching this issue

              Created:
              Updated:
              Resolved: