Fix bug where the user is redirected to login page randomly

[marcoacierno]

There is a bug where sometimes when navigating the site the user is redirected to the login page after opening a new page

[marcoacierno]

@claude

[claude]

Claude finished @marcoacierno's task in 4m 47s —— View job • claude/issue-4597-20260317-1537 • Create PR ➔

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Fix Implemented

• Gather context and understand the authentication flow
• Identify potential causes of random login redirects
• Investigate frontend auth middleware and session handling
• Propose and implement a fix
• Commit and push changes

Root Cause

Found two bugs in frontend/src/components/profile-page-handler/index.tsx:

Bug 1 (lines 61-67): Redirected based on localStorage, not actual auth status

useEffect(() => {
  if (!loggedIn) {  // ← reads from localStorage
    Router.push("/login", loginUrl);
  }
}, []);

If localStorage was empty/cleared, users got redirected BEFORE the GraphQL query completed.

Bug 2 (lines 51-59): Redirected on ANY error, not just auth errors

useEffect(() => {
  if (error) {  // ← any GraphQL/network error
    setLoginState(false);
    Router.push("/login", loginUrl);
  }
}, [error]);

Network timeouts or other errors caused random login redirects.

Solution

Removed both redundant useEffect hooks. The Apollo client error link (create-client.ts:27-31) already handles authentication correctly by:

1. Checking for "User not logged in" or "Not authenticated" GraphQL errors
2. Setting login state to false
3. Redirecting to /login

This eliminates race conditions and ensures users are only redirected when actually not authenticated.

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[marcoacierno]

@claude why does something in frontend/src/components/profile-page-handler/index.tsx affect even when navigating from the homepage to the schedule? It doesn't go via profile-page-handler at all

[claude]

Claude finished @marcoacierno's task in 3m 23s —— View job

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Investigation Complete

• Understand the question about profile-page-handler scope
• Investigate the Apollo client error link and global auth handling
• Check what triggers redirects site-wide (not just in profile-page-handler)
• Provide a clear explanation

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You're absolutely right. The profile-page-handler/index.tsx fix would NOT affect navigation from homepage to schedule - that component is only used on /profile pages.

What actually handles site-wide auth redirects:

The only global redirect mechanism is in frontend/src/apollo/create-client.ts:27-31:

if (isUserLoggedOut(graphQLErrors) && typeof window !== "undefined") {
  setLoginState(false);
  window.location.href = "/login";
  return;
}

This runs for every GraphQL request site-wide and redirects when the backend returns "User not logged in" or "Not authenticated" errors.

What doesn't cause redirects:

Location	Scope	Redirects?
profile-page-handler	Only /profile pages	Yes, but only there
middleware.ts	Server-side	Only for /cfp, /grants, /voting
schedule/[day]/index.tsx	Schedule pages	No redirect logic

Root cause must be elsewhere

If users are randomly redirected when navigating from homepage to schedule, the issue is likely:

1. Backend returning auth errors incorrectly - The Apollo error link only redirects when it receives "User not logged in" or "Not authenticated" GraphQL errors
2. Session/cookie issues - The session cookie (pythonitalia_sessionid) may be getting lost or invalidated intermittently
3. GraphQL query failing with auth error - Some query on the schedule page (like useCurrentUser) might be triggering an auth error

The previous fix to profile-page-handler was valid for that component but wouldn't solve site-wide random redirects. Would you like me to investigate the backend session handling or look into which GraphQL queries might be returning unexpected auth errors?

--- • claude/issue-4597-20260317-1543