URL of HTML document automatically change to about:blank

DEVONthink
1

How to reproduce the bug in v3.9.8:

  • Open any normal HTML document with the URL field either populated or empty.
  • In Preview view, use Format > Highlight to highlight some text.
  • Immediately switch to either Source view or Side-by-Side view.

Now the URL field displays about:blank, regardless of the previously held value. Surprise!

This bug adds to my argument that DEVONthink should, in principle, not automatically overwrite the value of an editable field. Better hold the user responsible for what is in a metadata field than overengineering :slight_smile:

2

It doesn’t happen in macOS Ventura. Surprise! :wink:

In fact, in Ventura a trailing slash is added to the end of the URL.
@cgrunenberg: I did confirm the behavior in Sonoma and Sequoia.

3

Most “overengineering” is due to former requests and not because we’re bored :wink: And the issue referenced by you was one of DEVONthink To Go (and the WebKit), in DEVONthink 3.x the issue only became obvious.

1 Like
4

I see and thanks for the reply. That’s why developers don’t accept every single feature request. Aside from that being too much workload, some proposals, when implemented, do not actually make for a better product.

That is textbook overengineering: an issue which would make the developer scratch their heads turned — totally unintentionally — into one which makes the user scratch their heads :wink:

5

And actually we don’t, especially unique requests. Our to-do list is already way too long without accepting every single request :wink:

In this case the story is simple - the WebKit is buggy and requires workarounds on newer macOS versions but the workarounds cause unexpected side effects.

Anyway, the next maintenance release will fix this.

1 Like