HP / Taleo WTF



  • Found during internship hunt on HP-Labs jobs pages:

    A Career Section is already open in your browser

    A Career Section is already open in another browser window. Please close your browser and try again.



    Taleo logo Powered by Taleo

    Another window??? NO WAY! I've only opened each position description in separate tab to let it load while I read others. Worst thing - I can see the right page for a second, then it reloads itself to "https://hp.taleo.net/servlets/CareerSection?art_ip_action=MultipleBrowserConflict&...".



  • Maybe you should apply for a job as a webmaster...



  • Nasty.  I just tested that on our own careers site and received the very same message by opting to "Open in New Tab".  How utterly stupid.

    What possible reasoning is behind this?  Perhaps I should have our recruitment team yell at Taleo about it. 



  • Better yet: Can you think of any solution other than one-time-tokens assigned to every link, that will detect if you're using more than one window? (you know - every link with "&token=123456" on the same page, then database check whether it was already used)

    I've been trying but couldn't find any other SIMPLE and reliable solution for that. It's really weird that they had time to implement it.



  • AJAX heartbeat on the page with a fairly short timeout, so that the "open on another page" state expires a few seconds (at most) after the user navigates away from the page?  It's stupid, it's evil, and it's stupid, but there's always more than one way to do it.
     



  • @viraptor said:

    Better yet: Can you think of any solution other than one-time-tokens assigned to every link, that will detect if you're using more than one window? (you know - every link with "&token=123456" on the same page, then database check whether it was already used)

    I've been trying but couldn't find any other SIMPLE and reliable solution for that. It's really weird that they had time to implement it.

    No, that wouldn't work.  The problem is that if you "Open in New Window" anything, it immediately causes that new window to yell at you that you aren't allowed more than one window.  There's no possible way any form of "one time link" implementation can pull that sort of cruft off - since you ARE only using the links once.



  • @Kyanar said:

    @viraptor said:

    Better yet: Can you think of any solution other than one-time-tokens assigned to every link, that will detect if you're using more than one window? (you know - every link with "&token=123456" on the same page, then database check whether it was already used)

    I've been trying but couldn't find any other SIMPLE and reliable solution for that. It's really weird that they had time to implement it.

    No, that wouldn't work.  The problem is that if you "Open in New Window" anything, it immediately causes that new window to yell at you that you aren't allowed more than one window.  There's no possible way any form of "one time link" implementation can pull that sort of cruft off - since you ARE only using the links once.

    Mmmm... let's see.

    Whenever I generate a page, I get $sid = (session id) and $token=(rand() until != $token_from_current_url). Now I append "$sid$token" string to each link I print.
    Suppose I'm looking at "index?token=1000" and I've got links to "foo?token=1001" and "bar?token=1001". Just after loading token 1000 is marked used.

    When I click at first link and then second link - token 1001 is marked used on page "foo", which loads ok, but "bar" will not load, because 1001 is invalid.

    Of course first I print the correct "bar" page with
    if($result_from_SELECT_..._WHERE_token=1001 == error)
        echo '<meta whatever_attribute_it_was="/can't_multiview_page" timeout="5">';

    Why do you say it won't work? I try to use the same token twice, not the same link.



  • @viraptor said:

    @Kyanar said:
    @viraptor said:

    Better yet: Can you think of any solution other than one-time-tokens assigned to every link, that will detect if you're using more than one window? (you know - every link with "&token=123456" on the same page, then database check whether it was already used)

    I've been trying but couldn't find any other SIMPLE and reliable solution for that. It's really weird that they had time to implement it.

    No, that wouldn't work.  The problem is that if you "Open in New Window" anything, it immediately causes that new window to yell at you that you aren't allowed more than one window.  There's no possible way any form of "one time link" implementation can pull that sort of cruft off - since you ARE only using the links once.

    Mmmm... let's see.

    Whenever I generate a page, I get $sid = (session id) and $token=(rand() until != $token_from_current_url). Now I append "$sid$token" string to each link I print.
    Suppose I'm looking at "index?token=1000" and I've got links to "foo?token=1001" and "bar?token=1001". Just after loading token 1000 is marked used.

    When I click at first link and then second link - token 1001 is marked used on page "foo", which loads ok, but "bar" will not load, because 1001 is invalid.

    Of course first I print the correct "bar" page with
    if($result_from_SELECT_..._WHERE_token=1001 == error)
        echo '<meta whatever_attribute_it_was="/can't_multiview_page" timeout="5">';

    Why do you say it won't work? I try to use the same token twice, not the same link.

    It wont work, because noone actually clicked any links on the first page.  None.  They choose "Open in New Window" on one page, and it immediately determines that you have more than one viewport (used to replace Window and Tab interchangeably) with their site open.



  • OK - didn't get your point the first time :)



  • That's just evil. It's a deliberate breaking of using multiple windows/tabs.

    I encountered something similar on one shopping site one, and have seen many more where they use lame javascript fake links instead of real links. I just close the window never go back to them. Sometimes you can't, though.

     

    Sucks. 



  • Give them credit for one thing though, if you access two different Taleo installations it doesn't trigger the "No, bad user!" message.  Ex. if you access HPs and someone elses job sites using it.



  • @Kyanar said:

    Give them credit for one thing though, if you access two different Taleo installations it doesn't trigger the "No, bad user!" message.  Ex. if you access HPs and someone elses job sites using it.

    That's not much credit.



  • also when I have a pop up blocker enabled i get an error message  on https://hp.taleo.net

    "You cannot access WebTop services because pop-up windows from this site are currently blocked."

     

    So they took the trouble implemting a pop up blocker detector rather than making the site usable without pop ups. That *is* pretty bad.



  • @fly2 said:

    also when I have a pop up blocker enabled i get an error message  on https://hp.taleo.net

    "You cannot access WebTop services because pop-up windows from this site are currently blocked."

     

    So they took the trouble implemting a pop up blocker detector rather than making the site usable without pop ups. That is pretty bad.

    Well, since going straight to the root sends you to the Enterprise Login, I don't think it actually matters whether or not popups are required.  Popups are NOT required for regular users just browsing for jobs.



  • hello cookies!  goodbye lack of understanding!

     I have to harvest jobs from those stinking websites, I hate Taleo!!



  • @pauluskc said:

    hello cookies!  goodbye lack of understanding!

     I have to harvest jobs from those stinking websites, I hate Taleo!!

    Indeed.  And the real WTF was yesterday's Taleo bomb - every Taleo powered recruitment site in the world was, rather than helpfully displaying jobs to candiates, barfing "404 Not Found.  If you're a candidate, go to www.taleo.com/support.  If you are an enterprise customer, call the support hotline" (the candidate support page consists of "change cookie settings", "reinstall IE", and of course "use a different browser").  Wow, the paniced calls our IS team got about that.


  • Ew. I would never use that service again, and probably also write a fairly rude email to the Taleo contact address telling them why not.



  • If you actually want to use this "less than optimal" piece of trash, turn off pop up blocker and try it again.  You have to be brain dead to use this thing. 

     <FONT face=Arial size=2>http://poweredbytaleo.blogspot.com/</FONT>


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