invalid edit token

Question

I just spent nearly an hour editing the text of a merge I was attempting.  Only to get a msg "invalid Edit Token".   Bummer.  So checked the questions using that msg and see it could be because I had the page open too long.  More bummer.  I'm not going back to go over that whole page again - it would take me the same hour to do it.  So that duplicate won't get merged by me!   If you're going to block work because the page is open too long, perhaps you need to blink a warning of some kind.  I will go back to 'unmanage' those profiles so somebody else can do what they want with them.  I'm through.

	Jackson-29865	Jackson-15957

Answer 1

Your work isn't being blocked.

This is typical behavior for all internet website forms -- an open connection can only be held open for so long.

To be technical about it -- HTTP protocols do not have any open connections at all, but merely only short page requests, GETs and PUTs. But sessions are defined on the server side to simulate open connections, so that the PUT request can be known as a proper response to the previous GET request. Webservers with limited resources, or that handle lots and lots of simultaneous requests can only afford to keep these sessions open for a short specified length of time. Else the entire site would be blocked to every other user. This is how DDOS (denial of service) attacks happen. One user makes many multiple requests, keeping them all open, so that no one else can access the site. Therefore, sessions are intentionally short.

As a workaround, copy the text into a local text editor, make your changes there, then paste it back into the website.

Its also okay to save your work frequently with multiple editing sessions.

Answer 2

I know how frustrating this can be.  I have lost a lot of work because of this error, so if it's a large profile, I exit it each time I save it. Even so, in large tables, sometimes half the table gets wiped out when I save it, so I now back up every table (with every change I make to it) in Notepad++