Inconsistent "in form" icon behaviour

After my previous experience reporting a problem that just seemed to disappear, I wanted to be really sure that if I reported anything further, that it would be totally reproducible. ;)

I use Ubiquiti networking and surveillance gear at home. There is one website that I typically logon to multiple times a day. It is the "Unifi Network Controller" website that comes either as part of a software download from the Ubiquiti site, for installing onto existing pc's/servers, or as in my case, it is incorporated into the Unifi Cloud Key device I have on my network. It is the logging into this controller after the first login, where I see an inconsistency in 1Password's plugin behaviour.

I have produced a screencast that demonstrates a reproducible sequence that I think will be of interest. Certainly the plugin does NOT totally break. But the "in form" icon used on the initial login, is not present on subsequent logins.

Starting from the Unifi Controller login screen, logging in for the first time in the web browser session. My screencast documents the following sequence:

  • The 1Password "in form" icon is present but greyed out.
  • Logging into the 1Password plugin causes the "in form" icon to go "live".
  • Selecting the live "in form" icon gives two options for logging in (There is a Cloud Key firmware layer as well as a management console).
  • Selecting the "Ubiquiti Management Console" logs me in.
  • To simulate a second logon on the same session, I log out of the management console returning to the login screen.
  • The login screen at this point, does NOT display the "in form" icon.
  • Using the browser 1Password toolbar icon, I proceed to log back in. Proving the plugin is working. :)

It is the inconsistency of the "in form" icon I am reporting here. It is definitely not a "show stopper" but it is behaviour that changes for the user without an obvious reason.


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: 0.93
OS Version: Ubuntu 16.04
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • beyer
    beyer
    1Password Alumni

    @stonerough: I'll need to checkout UniFi to verify for sure, but I'm guessing this has to do with how the login page loads. If we don't detect a password field when the page first loads, then we won't display the inline filling form. We err on the side of caution to help prevent us showing the inline menu in places we shouldn't like search fields on a page.

    We are working to improve our algorithm here, so you'll see improvements to the displaying of the inline form in future updates.

    --
    Andrew Beyer (Ann Arbor, MI)
    Lifeline @ AgileBits

  • stonerough
    stonerough
    Community Member

    @beyer: That's completely understandable. Like I say in the post, its not a show stopper.

    I use Linux both at work and home. I am using this plugin a lot and already find myself relying on it! I am really looking forward to how this project evolves. :)

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Likewise, looking forward to any other feedback you have to share! :) :+1:

  • Thanks for the report, @stonerough.

    I’m mobile atm so I can’t test this myself but I wanted to let you know that we just published 0.9.4 which made quite a few changes to how the inline menu works. I believe it will help here. Please give it a go and see how it goes for you.

    Thanks!

  • stonerough
    stonerough
    Community Member

    @dteare, After reading your post, I performed the following sequence:

    1. Confirmed the plugin on my browser had updated to 0.9.4
    2. As I was already logged onto my controller (had been for about an hour), I logged out of the website to find the "in form" icons where visible and live.
    3. Logged in using the "in form" icons. (All good so far...)
      I decided to confirm everything so...
    4. Logged out again and the "in form" icons where NOT visible.
    5. Logged in using plugin icon on the toolbar.
    6. Logged out again and the "in form" icons where NOT visible.

    I am not sure what this tells us!

    Is it possible that because I had been logged in for some time when I first logged out (step 2), that the authentication fields "appeared" as they do for a "new" session? This would seem strange, but I am not sure if there is a "better" explanation.

    I will be home for the next 3 days, so I will see if I can repeat the sequence above. If I determine it is repeatable, I will confirm it here.

    Let me know if you need me to try a few things out.

    Cheers Peter

  • stonerough
    stonerough
    Community Member

    @dteare, For completeness:

    Ubiquiti has a very active development support cycle on their hardware. It has just occurred to me that I performed an update in the Controller Firmware earlier today. For this firmware, update the Controller application was NOT upgraded (sometimes it is).

    I do not expected that the login screen to the Controller application would change if it was upgraded, but it might...

    An upgrade for the controller is scheduled early next week. As there is no security patch or functionality I want to use with this update, I am happy to delay doing it for a while, if it will assist here.

    Let me know... Peter

  • Hi @stonerough,

    I think the Ubiquiti controller is a single page app, which means when you log out, you aren't actually loading a new page.

    A bit of explanation about how the inline menu works: every time you load a page, 1Password does a small amount of work to look for login forms. If it finds one, it calls in the big guns and loads the code for the menu. And then it stops looking.

    If you log in and then log out of a web app that doesn't reload the page, 1Password isn't going to have any idea that a new login form appeared. You're still able to fill from the toolbar, because that forces 1Password to check again.

    We could solve this problem by constantly looking for login forms even after we've found one, but we want to be mindful of CPU usage and battery life. I suspect it's not worth the cost, but if you have a real world use case for this, please let me know. If you're mostly interested in bug squashing, that's OK too. :) At any rate, please feel free to and update your firmware!

  • @stonerough I'm interested in knowing if you still experience this bug in version 0.9.9. I believe we may have fixed it with a change to the way we detect forms.

  • stonerough
    stonerough
    Community Member

    Hi @mitch

    • I confirmed my browser was using 0.9.9 (which it is).
    • I then performed 5 login/logouts in short succession

    The icon remained available to me on each login :)

    This is impressive work by your people - well done!

    Cheers Peter

  • That's great to hear, @stonerough! I'm so happy 0.9.9 fixed this issue for you. We lost a lot of sleep over the weekend making 1Password work better with single page apps, and it's awesome to see firsthand our caffeine-powered coding frenzy paying dividends :)

This discussion has been closed.