Dovetail Agent users start experiencing a change in the way the application works even if no code modifications to it have been applied.
Symptoms: if a new value has been entered in a field on a window and any link or button has been clicked, a pop-up message shows up which reads (see attachment):
Are you sure you want to leave this page ?
Message from webpage:
The information on this page has changed.
Pressing OK will close this page and cancel any changes made.
-> Leave this page
-> Stay on this page
But there is no OK button available. Clicking on either "Leave this page" or "Stay on this page" may not allow the user to move on.
This pop-up message may appear even if the standard Save/Discard/Cancel dialog comes into play.
This change of behavior only occurs when:
- IE9 or IE10 is in use,
- Windows Update KB2846071 has been applied.
KB2846071 is an important security update, as described here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms13-055
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/microsoft-patch-tuesday-july-2013
http://www.iss.net/security_center/reference/vuln/win-ms13kb2846071-update.htm
But it breaks existing IE functionality, and users already complain about it:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie9-windows_7/july-2013-patch-bundle-now-makes-ie9-ask-are-you/37f8d15f-beec-4337-ab88-c08c93bbc94e
Dovetail Software DOES NOT advise to remove Windows Update KB2846071 from the system.
Dovetail Software reminds its customers that Dovetail Agent version 4.5 or earlier is not IE9/10 compliant. Users who want to utilize IE9/10 must upgrade to version 4.6 which will be available soon, please check with Dovetail Software about release date.
Dovetail Agent version 4.5 or earlier is not subject to the problem described if used with IE8, even if the Windows Update KB2846071 is installed.
In case IE9 or IE10 must be used and Windows Update KB2846071 is installed, the following can be applied to alleviate this problem:
- modify one Dovetail Agent code module,
- run Dovetail Agent in compatibility mode.
The code change affects agent\pages\code\client_utility.js. Find AttachChangeEvent function, comment out this line in it:
window.onbeforeunload = CheckDirty;
This will suppress the "Leave this page"/"Stay on this page" pop-up but will also have a side effect: if a user makes changes on a window and then closes it by Ctrl+w, Alt+F4, click on upper-right , or doubleclick on left-upper corner, the window will close without detecting the data change and prompting for Save/Discard, or saving the new data.
If a user makes changes on a window and then clicks Done he/she will be asked to Save/Discard/Cancel as usual.
Please keep in mind that running Dovetail Agent in IE9 or IE10 in compatibility mode may have other undesired consequences because Dovetail Agent version 4.5 and below is not IE9 or IE10 compliant. The workaround described here only helps with this Leave this page / Stay on this page pop-up message problem.