Update
In an attempt to answer a question posted in the comments, I solved the problem. The solution was specific to an error in my code and there is no general insight that would be useful to post as an answer. I will delete this question once the bounty closes.
Summary
Users submit a mobile web form on our site. Sometimes we later receive a second submission with all the questions unanswered, even though the UI shouldn't allow this.
Background
I operate a research study with the following protocol:
- We SMS the user a http link ("page 1").
- The web page shows a series of questions (using jQuery moble /
data-role='page'to display them one at a time). - When the user answers the final, multiple choice question, the page is submitted via javascript.
- The receiving page ("page 2") saves the POST data to our db.
Problem
On occasion, I get a submission that has all the questions set to their blank/initialized values. This should be impossible because the user has to select answers before they can submit page 1.
This only happens for links on which the user had previously clicked and submitted a real response. The resubmission can be hours or days after the original submission.
It seems like their phone is somehow automatically reloading page 1 and submitting it, but I have no idea how this could happen.
I can't reproduce the problem, so I can't provide a minimal example. Here's the real thing. It's 5 questions long; feel free to experiment.
What we know
- It's not caused by users revisiting the link manually, because they would still have to provide answers before submitting.
- It's probably not caused by any intentional behavior, since it only ever happens after they've previously visited the link and provided a real response.
- It's not caused by reloading page 2, because that would produce a duplicate response, not a blank one.
- It appears that page 1 is actually being reloaded, because autopopulated form fields (e.g, pageload timestamp) are updated.
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