LocaleInterceptor leads to hanging page if user is logged in and previous requests became stale

[jlipka]

The current implementation of the "LocaleInterceptor" leads Dspace to hang if the current user is logged in and the (previous) "eperson/epersons"-request has become stale.

References

• (not reported yet)

Description

Requirements:

• User is logged in
• the (previous) request to /server/api/eperson/epersons/UUID has become stale in the meantime

The LocaleInterceptor adds a http header ("Accept-Language") to almost each request. While this works in most cases, the interceptor should set "ignoreEPersonSettings" to "true", if the request url itself leads to the endpoint of "server/api/eperson/epersons" and the state of the previous request got stale. Otherwise, the following chain is called again and again:
"LocaleService.getLanguageCodeList()" -> "AuthService.getAuthenticatedUserFromStore()" -> epersonService.findById() -> ...which leads to process the LocaleInterceptor again.

Instructions for Reviewers

List of changes in this PR:

• The LocaleInterceptor got a new condition when to set ignoreEPersonSettings to true

Test the behaviour before the fix following these steps

• Make sure you decrease the default cache time to lets say 30 seconds in the "default-app-config.ts"

  • // NOTE: how long should objects be cached for by default
    msToLive: {
      // default: 15 * 60 * 1000, // 15 minutes
      default: 30000, // 30 seconds
    },
    

• Restart dspace to make sure the settings becomes active
• Login as an administrator
• Open the "MyDSpace" page; make a hard-reload in the browser - wait for at least 30 seconds
• Click on "Workflows tasks" in the dropdown ui element in the left sidebar
• ...see the loading spinner never end and the data are never shown. To go on, you need to hard-refresh your browser for example.

Even though the circumstances sound unusual, our colleagues have experienced the “MyDSpace” page remaining open in the browser for a longer time. As soon as they start working again with DSpace, the effect described above occurs. Especially since the auto-logout in the default configuration occurs regulary after 20 minutes.

This video should show the problem:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b862bfb4-fb2a-499a-84e1-9ef784ca9077

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