Fix improve UX for back button on workflow bitstream downloads (#4146)

[guillermo-escire]

References

• Fixes Improve UX for back button on workflow bitstream downloads #4146

Description

This PR improves navigation reliability during workflow bitstream downloads by removing the Back button from the bitstream download page.
The button could lead to a Whitelabel error in certain workflow navigation scenarios due to missing or invalid navigation history.

Instructions for Reviewers

This PR removes the Back button from the bitstream download page, as suggested in issue #4146, to ensure consistent and predictable behavior across the UI.

List of changes in this PR:

• Removed the Back button from bitstream-download-page.component.html.
• Removed the unused back() method and related Location dependency from BitstreamDownloadPageComponent.

Include guidance for how to test or review your PR. This may include: steps to reproduce a bug, screenshots or description of a new feature, or reasons behind specific changes.

1. Go to a workflow item page (e.g. /workflowitems/{id}/view).

2. Download a bitstream.

3. Verify that:

   • The download still works as expected.
   • No Back button is displayed on the bitstream download page.
   • Navigation relies on the browser back button, avoiding Whitelabel errors.

4. Confirm that bitstream downloads from the Full Item Page and Admin UI remain unaffected.

Checklist

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• My PR is created against the main branch of code (unless it is a backport or is fixing an issue specific to an older branch).
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[alegontarz]

QA testing performed (no code review).

Works as expected:

1. Back button is not displayed on the bitstream download page.

Does not work as expected:

1. Bitstream download does not work.
2. Whitelabel error occurs when accessing /workflowitems/{id}/view > Download

[alegontarz]

QA testing performed (no code review).

Works as expected:

1. Bitstream download works correctly
2. Tested successfully with multiple file types, e.g., PDF, CSV, JPG, MOV, MP4.

[tdonohue]

@alegontarz : Could you please verify which of your reviews is valid here? It looks like you have two conflicting reviews... the first one says you found a bug. But the second one says it's working fine.

I'm just trying to determine whether this PR has been found to contain bugs or not. That way we know whether this belongs in the "Under Review" column (meaning it's still undergoing reviews/updates) or if it should move to "Reviewer Approved" (meaning that at least one person found it works well).

[alegontarz]

@tdonohue The second review is the valid one; no bugs were found, and everything works as expected. This PR can be moved to the “Reviewer Approved” column.

[tdonohue]

@guillermo-escire : I'm not able to figure out how to test this PR. It appears, to me, that this might be obsolete in 10.0 because of the changes to the download process made in #5132.

Here's what I'm trying to do:

1. Login and visit the MyDSpace page for a user that has workflow items
2. Go to the list of Workflow items
3. Click the View button next to one
4. Click the download button next to one of the files. The file opens in a new tab immediately. No download page is displayed.

If I try that same process on DSpace 9, I still do see the download page. But, this behavior appears to have changed in 10.0. So, I think this PR is obsolete in 10.0, but we could consider applying it only to 9.x and 8.x.

Could you double check this is still a valid fix?

[kanasznagyzoltan]

@tdonohue @guillermo-escire
We have also tried to test the PR: Looks to be working. After clicking on downloading a file, there is no ‘Back’ button, can only navigate back with the browser itself.

pr_5080_test.mp4

[guillermo-escire]

Hi @tdonohue, Thank you for your feedback and for testing this PR.

I understand the concern, if the download behavior has changed in 10.0 due to #5132, this fix may indeed be obsolete for the main branch. I'll investigate the current behavior in 10.0 and determine whether this PR still applies or if it should be scoped only to the 9.x and 8.x branches.

I'll update this PR accordingly once I've had a chance to review it.

Thanks again for the thorough review!

[guillermo-escire]

Hi @tdonohue, based on the testing done by @kanasznagyzoltan, the fix appears to still be relevant in 10.0 — the Back button is no longer displayed and downloads work correctly. It seems the page is still rendered in some scenarios even after #5132. Could this PR be moved back to "Reviewer Approved" for final merge consideration?

[tdonohue]

@guillermo-escire : Could you or @kanasznagyzoltan verify which scenarios this page still renders under in 10.0? I'm still having trouble finding a scenario in which this page is rendering.

On my end, I've tried turning off the new showDownloadLinkAsAttachment feature. Then I've tried downloading large files, small files, Word files, PDF files, video files...none of them render that download page anymore. They all just download immediately into my browser's download area.

I've tested this in three browsers: Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge.

So, I'm struggling to find a way to get this download page to appear. If someone can find a scenario where it appears, then we can definitely move this PR forward. But, I've been unsuccessful so far.

[kanasznagyzoltan]

Dear @tdonohue
I am tagging my colleague @msutya, he tested this PR.

[kanasznagyzoltan]

@tdonohue I checked @msutya testing and what i see he tested it in the normal area not in the workflow area.
We are sorry for our testing mistake, we are checking it again!

[kanasznagyzoltan]

@guillermo-escire @tdonohue
I checked again.

The current state: backend: dspace-10.0-testathon, frontend: dspace-10.0-testathon-dist

pr_5080_main_branch.mp4

This PR branch: backend: dspace-10.0-testathon, frontend: docker image built using this PR branch

pr_5080_feature_branch.mp4

What I see the difference is the PR is trying to move back to /workflowitem/id/view page which I think is better than moving back to the mydspace page what the main branch is doing. But I don't know why I am getting javascript errors after I am moving back to the workflow item page.

[kanasznagyzoltan]

I put the js error into this comment:

ERROR SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON
    at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:1793289
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2247616
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2247609
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2246347
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
handleError @ main.183575996da3fd98.js:1Understand this error
/server/api/config/properties/google.analytics.key:1  Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)Understand this error
main.183575996da3fd98.js:1 ERROR SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON
    at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:1793289
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2247616
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2247609
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2246347
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
handleError @ main.183575996da3fd98.js:1Understand this error
/server/api/config/properties/contentreport.enable:1  Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)Understand this error
main.183575996da3fd98.js:1 ERROR TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'messageTimeOutDurationMs')
    at new f (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:801585)
    at h.ɵfac [as factory] (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:802505)
    at gi.hydrate (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2553612)
    at gi.get (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2552158)
    at gi.get (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2552207)
    at td.get (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2561530)
    at Of (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2562877)
    at Eg (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2563381)
    at Object.pp (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2591127)
    at P.ɵfac [as factory] (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:905110)
handleError @ main.183575996da3fd98.js:1Understand this error
main.183575996da3fd98.js:1 The response for 'http://192.168.1.31/server/api/core/items/700b51ae-39c5-4824-abcd-0b0ca1991c41/bundles' has the self link 'http://192.168.1.31/server/api/core/items/700b51ae-39c5-4824-abcd-0b0ca1991c41/bundles?embed=primaryBitstream&embed=bitstreams/format&embed.size=bitstreams=5'. These don't match. This could mean there's an issue with the REST endpoint
ensureSelfLink @ main.183575996da3fd98.js:1Understand this warning
main.183575996da3fd98.js:1 ERROR TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'enableBrowseMap')
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:1415249
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2247616
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2252042
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
    at main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2246347
    at l._next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2244010)
    at l.next (main.183575996da3fd98.js:1:2232841)
handleError @ main.183575996da3fd98.js:1Understand this error