Is it Good Practice to refresh the whole Page or Just reset the variables when user logged out (GWT)?

Question

Here is my Gwt App, I have many pages: CustomerPage, OrderPage,... Each of these pages will have a header that have a Login Panel on top & its own content in the middle like this:

1- Customer Page
____________UserName...... Password....... Login

Customer  Content here.....

2- Order Page
____________UserName...... Password....... Login

Order  Content here.....

This means user can sign in in any page, they don't need to go to homepage to sign in.

Then here is my question, When user is in a certain page (ex: CustomerPage) & if they Log out then:

1- Should I refresh the whole page or redirect users to a Logout Page, so if they want to reopen the CustomerPage, then the page will have to go through all the Initializing processes (onBind-onReveal-onReset...)

2- Should I just let user stay where they are, and when user clicks logout button then system will reset variables. By doing that, then if user logs back in, the page will run faster cos it doesn't have to go through all the (onBind-onReveal-onReset...). However, if i do that then it quite difficult for me to reset all the variables. I have to remember which variables already initialed at the time the page got loggined & try to reset it to null or empty string. If i miss resetting just 1 variable then i will have trouble.

Some big site like Google or Facebook are using the solution 1, ie when user signs out it will redirect to new page or go back to homepage.

Also If adopting the solution 1, then i just need to call Window.Location.reload(); & it will reset everything. Even user clicks Back Arrow, they won't be able to see the old data since everything was reset.

So: Is it Good Practice to redirect to a new Page or staying at the same page When user logged out (GWT)?

Answer 1

When users click on a Logout button, they expect that they can walk away from a computer. If you continue to show the same page, someone else might gain access to the data.

The universally accepted approach is to hide all data (i.e. redirect to the login/home page or close the app completely) when a user logs out. That's what users expect, and this is what you must do.

Answer 2

It depends what you've got loaded into the browser. Log in/out via a page refresh will be slower and present lag to your user. If you properly cleanup after yourself on logout (delete server side session, unbind presenters, clear caches) then it is really optional to refresh the page.

The universally accepted approach is to hide all data (i.e. redirect to the login/home page or close the app completely) when a user logs out. That's what users expect, and this is what you must do.

If your session management server side prevents any RPC's once you've logged out, and you no longer present/cache data, this is not an absolute necessity. Use digression based on your app needs, size, load time, and the sensitivity of the data it conveys.