Spinner shows endlessly on URLs for pages that don’t exist in database

[lightandluck]

See: https://monitoring.envirodatagov.org/page/975102e4-5e13-4274-969a-f6dcb5f2b09b/5f1689cf-e7f1-45c7-917c-ebaa01856b5e..5f1689cf-e7f1-45c7-917c-ebaa01856b5e

[Mr0grog]

Should we also remove the “none” option for the diff type? Or are you thinking of this as a replacement for that option? (Seems like it could/should still be a different name)

[lightandluck]

Yea, sorry for raising an issue and not proposing a solution. I noticed this before while working on #161 but didn't ticket it and then saw the conversation on Slack, so wanted to note it before I forgot.

We should remove the "none" option because it doesn't serve any function for the user. I feel we should redirect to the highlighted rendered view and signal to the user that the page they're looking at has only one version.

@weatherpattern Thoughts?

[Mr0grog]

Yea, sorry for raising an issue and not proposing a solution.

Don’t be sorry, this is a good practice! It’s helpful to phrase the issue as an open-ended problem when doing that, though, e.g. “Spinner shows endlessly on pages with only one version” or something. That helps signal that it needs further thinking and discussion to determine an actual solution. You can always rename the issue once it matures into an actual task for someone to complete.

[lightandluck]

Cool, that's a great process for handling issues! Will remember to do so and adding to my list of github tips

[weatherpattern]

Totally agree with @Mr0grog . Definitely best to start with the problem, rather than the solution. (It's fine to suggest a solution if you have one handy.)

As an aside @lightandluck (and i'm not suggesting we do this, but you mentioned Agile once): In Agile a common practice for writing "stories" (basically how we are using issues), is to phrase them with this format:"As an [ analyst], I want to [know that there is only one version of a page], so that [I am not confused by a blank screen or an unclear rendered page]. It can get pedantic but the motivation is solid: defining the problem as who you are are building for and why, before you start building. Helpful? Hope so!

[lightandluck]

@weatherpattern I've read briefly about user stories. I got them confused with the user stories that UX designers use. Similar but definitely different.

Yea, we don't have the capacity to do any of this strictly, but it's nice to learn about these techniques to help me approach problems with more than just my intuition. All this info is great, thanks!

[weatherpattern]

Moving this to v0.0.2 Stop Versionista Imports. For now, analysts won't discover this edge case, because they won't have an assigned page unless there was a change was found across two versions. We'll want this fix when the analysts will be working in our UI, and doing their web page research there.

[danielballan]

I would say this belongs to v0.0.4 -- the first milestone where analysts will be interacting with a list of Pages as opposed to a Google Sheet with links to specific Changes. But I'm fine leaving it on v0.0.2 for now and punting it later if it isn't finished.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in seven days if no further activity occurs. If it should not be closed, please comment! Thank you for your contributions.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in seven days if no further activity occurs. If it should not be closed, please comment! Thank you for your contributions.

[katjone]

Here is the staging version of the url: https://monitoring-staging.envirodatagov.org/page/975102e4-5e13-4274-969a-f6dcb5f2b09b/5f1689cf-e7f1-45c7-917c-ebaa01856b5e..5f1689cf-e7f1-45c7-917c-ebaa01856b5e

Log in with credentials from slack channel

[Mr0grog]

Hmmmm, it looks like the above URL is actually for a page that doesn’t exist in the staging database, but that’s still useful — it’s a different version of this same problem: the spinner is going endlessly when the requested page doesn’t exist. (We log an error to the console, but show the user nothing!)

On the other hand, we must have fixed the original issue at some point (spinner shows endlessly when a page has only one version). Here’s an example of it working: https://monitoring-staging.envirodatagov.org/page/ffe55d05-1e52-4428-93d3-bf60b8fd212c/

So! We still need to stop showing the spinner and show an error when a page doesn’t exist. Here’s an example URL: https://monitoring-staging.envirodatagov.org/page/975102e4-5e13-4274-969a-f6dcb5f2b09b/ (or on localhost: http://localhost:3001/page/975102e4-5e13-4274-969a-f6dcb5f2b09b/)