[Resolved] Using Firefox (latest v90.0.2 (64-bit) macOS) CAPTCHA intermittently missing

[Author]

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[Steve Palm]

I am trying to:
We have a CAPTCHA on our listing submission page. We also have one on the account creation page. In both cases, using at least FireFox 90.0.2 (64-bit) on macOS the CAPTCHA intermittently does not display. So far, I do not have any confirmed reports on any other web browser except FireFox, and have not confirmed that the version of each user that reported the problem matches my testing version.

Link to a page where the issue can be seen:
hidden link
(requires a free account)

I expected to see:
The CAPTCHA should be visible every time so users can submit a form and have it work. Otherwise they get an error about a missing CAPTCHA.

Instead, I got:
No CAPTCHA displays. This happens intermittently.

One of the designers noticed this in the console:

Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: credFrontEndViewModel.tryToReloadReCAPTCHA is not a function
  onLoadRecaptcha  <em><u>hidden link</u></em>
  each      jQuery
  onLoadRecaptcha  <em><u>hidden link</u></em>

I can not reproduce that message. I do, though, experience the missing CAPTCHA on the form when force refreshing the add-listing page multiple times using a shift-click on the refresh button. I have not been able to personally reproduce the problem on the user account creation page.

I do see this in the inspect page view on the add-listing page when the CAPTCHA is not being displayed:

<div class="col-md-12">
<div class="js-wpt-field-items js-wpt-repetitive wpt-repetitive" data-initial-conditional="" data-item_name="recaptcha-recaptcha"><div id="recaptcha_cred_form_1022_1_1_recaptcha" class="g-recaptcha" data-sitekey="6LfxBcIZAAAAAC5UKluHAf0mAwToGse7TCSl3SCG"></div><div class="recaptcha_error" style="color:#aa0000;display:none;">Please validate reCAPTCHA</div>
<input type="text" id="cred_form_1022_1_1__recaptcha" name="_recaptcha" value="" style="display:none;" class="wpt-form-textfield form-textfield textfield" data-wpt-type="textfield" data-wpt-id="cred_form_1022_1_1_cred_form_1022_1_1__recaptcha" data-wpt-name="_recaptcha">
</div>
</div>

Wordpress 5.8
Astra Pro child theme, v3.6.7
The latest version of Toolset and all other plugins.

Have you any other reports of this?

[Nigel]

Hi Steve

I use Firefox on a Mac, so let me look into this.

We are pretty busy in the forum at the moment and this may be tricky to reproduce, so please bear with me, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

[Nigel]

OK, I visited the page (I had to create a user to test the form), and I reloaded the page over and over and each time the recaptcha loaded as expected.

I tried 40 times without seeing the issue, and was about to give up, but it occurred on the 41st try. When I reloaded the page again it worked fine.

Now, if that is representative of how often the issue occurs, and given Firefox's market share of below 4%, that translates into the issue occurring once every thousand visits or so.

I'm not sure that the developers will be willing to invest much time in tracking this down, but let me discuss it with them.

The developer in particular I need to speak with is on vacation this week, and it will be Tuesday before I can discuss, so I'll update you after that call.

[Steve Palm]

Thank you for your persistence... after 40 tries (or before) I probably would have given up. 🙂

For our users, we are getting a much higher rate of the problem, the other team member working on the site design was seeing it almost 50% of the time, and I probably saw it 20-30% of the time.

While I understand the market share issue, there is no guarantee the underlying cause isn't or won't cause other issues for other browsers at some point, depending on what is going on. We also would have a hard time dictating to users what browser to use, although I know that approach is often the only option one is left with. It isn't ideal.

I understand there will be no quick resolution, please keep me posted.

[Steve Palm]

Strange, again, my last post seems to be missing.

I wanted to thank you for your diligence, I likely would have given up before attempt 40. However, customers are seeing it more frequently, and the layout designer for our site was reporting it about 50% of the time. I don't know what other factors account for the variation in frequency. I was seeing it about maybe 20% of the time.

I hear you about market share, but we cannot know or dictate what browsers our users are using and it would be nice to have it working. It also has me wondering if whatever the underlying issue is won't affect something elsewhere. No way to know, especially if it isn't known what the problem is.

Thank you for your diligence, I will patiently wait until you hear more information.

[Nigel]

Hi Steve

It turns out we also had an internal report about this recently, too, and the developer—who was unable to reproduce the problem—identified where it could occur and has produced a fix. It will be included in the next Forms release, but in the meantime you an apply a patch.

Download the zipped js file from here: hidden link

Unzip the file and upload the JS file it contains to replace the one with the same name in cred-frontend-editor/public/js/frontend.js

Do let me know if that appears to resolve the issue.

[Nigel]

Sorry Steve

I saw your request for access, and forgot the security policies changed on the company drive account recently.

Try this link instead: hidden link

[Steve Palm]

My issue is resolved now. Thank you! The hotfix solved the problem, so I have every confidence future releases will work fine. Your efforts are very much appreciated.