views:

160

answers:

3

Hi, we have some application that this is vital to prevent users from opening multiple tabs/windows per session on the website ?

Edit: The reason is that those pages communicate with flash and we cannot know on server side whether the user has two windows open or not.

Of course you can suggest to make those changes in application design so it will use Flash Media Server as "token generator" but we cannot allow ourselves to change the infrastructure without good reason because it can take months

+16  A: 

This is a bad idea - you are restricting how the user expects their browser to behave.

Don't do it.

Galwegian
There are a couple of sites that insist on you only following one path through the site. There is nothing more annoying. I try to avoid them as far as possible.
Joe
If i must do that ?
eugeneK
Then question your requirements. Usability is immensely important.
Joe
Some pages communicate with flash application, while flash application has chat rooms. Room switch made using aspx pages. So user can enter two rooms at the time.If there is a solution without creating tokens for links or redesigning flash so room switch will be made on server side (FMS) would be great.
eugeneK
+4  A: 

The only way I could think of to reliably do such would be to have a session that kept track of a token which was updated each time a page was requested - links on the served page would all include the token, and when a page was loaded using that token, a new token would be generated (in essence, only allowing any page's links to be valid for a single use). However, this would break things like the Back button and whatnot, and thus isn't a very good solution.

What is so important that you have this requirement in the first place? Is there any way you could re-think your interface so as to avoid such?

Amber
This will not work very well because users will be able to open links in a new tab, and the OP seems to not want that (then the user won't be able to use the first tab anymore, but he would still have two tabs open at the same time which goes against the question requirement).
Andreas Bonini
The user will still be able to do that regardless - it's literally impossible to prevent opening multiple windows onto a website (how do you distinguish? you don't).
Amber
+3  A: 

If limiting the user to 1 interface at a time is vital to the app, you should consider writing it as a desktop application instead of a web application.

Kaleb Brasee
Thinking outside of the box... good call. :)
Mayo