Creating assignments with a space in them fails

[perllaghu]

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This is an extension of #1703 - with more details.

We have recently been made aware of a problem creating notebooks for assignments where there's a space in the assignment name.

There are two clarifications here:

1. This problem appears if there's a space anywhere in the path - so if one is doing something clever with course-codes in paths, a space in the course-code will trigger the problem
2. This only happens when creating a new notebook in a folder arrived at via the formgrader UI - any other route does not create this issue
   • this means even just clicking on the name of the assignment from the bread-crumb links in the grey bar allows it to work.
   • there is no problem uploading a notebook, to renameing a notebook to copy it into the directory.... just new notebook

Some investigation on links:

The link in the formgrader UI is <a target="_blank" href="<obfuscated path>/tree/./source/my space">my space</a>, compared to <a href="<obfuscated path>/tree/source/my%20space">my space</a> in the breadcrumb (which seems to have some form of event watch on it.)

• Removing the target="_blank" for the <a> element in the formgrader UI makes no difference
• replacing the space with %20 in the href attribute makes no difference.

Tested environments

• notebook 6.2.0; nbgrader 0.7.0; docker image build summer 2021, running in a cloud
• notebook 6.4.11; nbgrader 0.7.1; docker image build December 2022, running in a cloud
• notebook 6.4.11; nbgrader 0.7.1; docker image build December 2022, running on my workstation
• notebook 6.4.12; nbgrader 0.8.1; python libraries in virtual-environment on workstation 8 Feb 2023
  • in lab, this problem doesn't occur, because clicking on the assignment in the formgrader UI doesn't take me to the source folder

Testing different browsers & Operating Systems

I have tested the following combinations:

	linux	windows	Mac
Firefox	109.1	109.0	109.0.1
Chrome	109.0	109.0
Edge	110.0	109.0
Safari			16.1

caveat The "workstation" tests were only Firefox on Linux.

Initial Questions

We have 1,000's of users and 100's of assignments with spaces in the name - and this problem has only just been reported:

• Is this a new problem
• Have none of our instructors actually created a new assignment the the New Notebook button in the formgrader UI?
• Have all instructors just silently worked round the problem

Who else has had this problem (other than @major-project-1921)

Can anyone else repeat my virtual-environment test & confirm the issue?

[tuncbkose]

I can replicate the issue.

[perllaghu]

@tuncbkose - Many thanks for the confirmation... this seems to be a fundamental bug in NBGrader.

I suspect it's related to the links in notebook having javascript events attached, and formgrader links not having them.

The WebDeveloperToolkit in firefox shows me two events:

function(e) {
  if (e.altKey || e.metaKey || e.shiftKey) {
    return true;
  }
  window.history.pushState({
    path: model.path
  }, model.path, utils.url_path_join(
    that.base_url,
    'tree',
    utils.encode_uri_components(model.path)
  ));
  that.update_location(model.path);
  return false;
}

... and

function(e) {
  return "undefined" != typeof S && S.event.triggered !== e.type ? S.event.dispatch.apply(t, arguments) : void 0
}

Neither of these seem to actually do anything for a simple click to a folder.... can someone explain why the link without these events can't start a notebook?

[brichet]

Thanks for reporting this @perllaghu, I can reproduce it as well.

You can test the following, without any need of nbgrader:

• create a new folder in the tree view with space in the name
  • click on the folder name, it will open it and you will be able to create a new notebook without error
  • right click on the folder name and select "open link in new tab", then you will observe the same error when trying to create a new notebook

It seems we can't open a new tab in a folder with a space in its name without this behavior occurring.

[perllaghu]

Thanks for reporting this @perllaghu, I can reproduce it as well.

You can test the following, without any need of nbgrader:

* create a new folder in the tree view with space in the name
  
  * click on the folder name, it will open it and you will be able to create a new notebook without error
  * right click on the folder name and select "open link in new tab", then you will observe the same error when trying to create a new notebook

It seems we can't open a new tab in a folder with a space in its name without this behavior occurring.

Many thanks..... I'll raise an issue in the notebook repo..... no I won't: it's already there: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/issues/5841