Popout window for handouts bugged

When you open a handout as a popout window, its all fine and dandy.  But if you close it.  You can not open it again when clicking on it, you have to refresh. Tis is really bad when streaming.  I use google chrome, can that be the problem?  I have been living with this for some time.  I end up leaving the windows open, but that can use too much cpu and can create confusion with too many open.

The problem lies with Google Chrome, and an update that broke the behavior on Roll20 over two years ago. The devs recently fixed the behavior that caused the same problem with the chat tab, but have not yet addressed handouts and sheets. There is a workaround, though. Instead of closing the popped out handout, reload the popout window. This will close the window, but does not trigger the "can't be re-opened" behavior.

Thanks @keithcutis.

Thanks for the update @keithcutis. . I'm going to come off as condescending here, but as a developer of 20 years, I find it kind of incredible this was allowed to live in production this long. There is ALWAYS a way around problems like this. If there wasn't, we'd be in big trouble. Chrome might have changed the way popups work, added security measures, or changed the destroy logic/cleanup ect ect.. After looking at this for ten mins, I'm 99% sure this problem is related to bad cleanup logic, it 'thinks' the window already exists when you close and go to reopen it, then falls into not showing anything. I wouldn't be so quick to dump this on Chrome, although they have screwed me royally in the past, we find a way around it, we have too. We dont leave something like this broke for two years and blame it on the browser...and we especially dont tell the end-user...just refresh your page. Fix the feature, or hide it until you do -- I'd say this is an annoying enough bug to warrant immediate action. When something is completely unresponsive, and warrants a page reload by the end-user... that is unacceptable.  Had to vent this, because frankly I just find it incredible the DEV team didn't respond to the original threads I saw, and that its been sitting in limbo for so long.

It has been reported many times. I have had conversations with the dev team, and they have investigated. Since they can create and maintain something as complex as Roll20, I believe them when they say it as not as simple as it looks. They have been able to fix it in regards to the chat tab. My suspicion is that the fix would break something else, but I'm not a dev and have no more insight to the code than any other user.

Yep, that's the name of the game.. complex problems, and often changes you need to make are ruinous to other implementations/features. Ironically enough I just spent a week fixing modal/popup implementations throughout our entire platform, because I had too. We expose a feature that supposed to facilitate workflow (much like this), and it wasn't working. So... I had to fix it, and fast.  Just ignore me, I'm just shocked because if we didn't acknowledge a problem like this, and let it ride for two years, the clients paying millions of dollars a year wouldn't be very happy. Anyways this is a pointless post, I shouldn't have made. I do however have an actual question for you. You mentioned they fixed the popouts with Chat .... From what I'm seeing, its broke, same problem. Is this fix supposed to be in production (live) or is it in dev. Secondly, I noticed the same issue with Jukebox - unless I'm not using this correctly, I'd say every popup (windowed modal) implementation will behave the same way, at least in Chromium browsers.. As soon as I decouple Chat or jukebox, and close the popup, I can never get it back, until I full refresh...am I missing something?

Nope. I don't know what the problem is either or the difficulty in fixing, other than it isn't as simple as it appears from the outside. As for a workaround, any popped out window can be closed by refreshing that window (not the whole game). It will close, and thereafter reopen normally in the same game.

Thank you Keith, appreciate the information.

There are two workarounds for this problem I have noticed: a) Don't use Chrome. Interestingly enough, Firefox does not have this Problem. b) Use inline sheets (do not activate 'Popout Windows for Characters'). Then you can open / close character sheets or handouts as much as you like. Problem with that: You can not use those sheets outside of the Roll20 Browser Window...

I stream the game Markus.  I need to pop them open.  I also need to use chrome , would be a problem for me too switch browsers for that. I use firefox for my alternate name browser to stream the dice rolls.  cause roll 20 has another problem.  It has the dice roll tab get hidden when you switch tabs to work the game.  I need it visible all the time.  Kiethcutis had that workaround is to right click on sheet before you close it and click reload.  I bet I forget to do this come stream time though.

OmegaOm said: I stream the game Markus.  I need to pop them open.  I also need to use chrome , would be a problem for me too switch browsers for that. I use firefox for my alternate name browser to stream the dice rolls.  cause roll 20 has another problem.  It has the dice roll tab get hidden when you switch tabs to work the game.  I need it visible all the time.  Kiethcutis had that workaround is to right click on sheet before you close it and click reload.  I bet I forget to do this come stream time though. Either you use the trick Kiethcurtis mentioned or you use inline sheets. Both works fine...