Relationship field loses parent breadcrumb when switching language in legacy edit content screen

[fmontes]

relationship-breadcrumb.mp4

Description

In the legacy (old) edit content screen, when a user is inside a relationship field viewing a related contentlet, switching the language causes the breadcrumb / "back to parent" navigation to be lost. The user can no longer return to the parent contentlet without manually navigating away.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a contentlet in the legacy edit content screen
2. Drill into a related contentlet via a relationship field
3. Switch the language (e.g. EN → FR)
4. Observe: the breadcrumb back to the parent contentlet is gone

Expected

The breadcrumb should persist across language switches so the user can navigate back to the parent.

Actual

Breadcrumb is lost; user must navigate away and re-open the parent.

Impact

Annoyance — does not corrupt data, but degrades the editing flow for content with relationships across multiple languages.

Notes

• Reproducible video: [to be attached]
• Reported via customer support channel.

[fmontes]

🤖 AI Triage

Validation: Sufficient (80/100). Minor gaps: dotCMS version, browser/OS, the referenced reproducible video is not actually attached.

Duplicates: No direct duplicate. Related context:

• PR refactor(content-types): remove deprecated Relationships tab and legacy JSP/Struts code #35167 — refactor: remove deprecated Relationships tab and legacy JSP/Struts code
• PR feat(edit-content): auto-populate site/folder and language filters in relationship dialog #35214 — auto-populate site/folder/language filters in relationship dialog (new edit mode)

Code area: Backend (legacy JSP/Struts). Complexity: Small.

Root-cause hypothesis

The referer parameter that backs the "back to parent" breadcrumb is not preserved across the language-switch reload of the legacy edit-content screen.

• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/languages_select_inc.jsp lines 31–35 — the Dojo FilteringSelect onChange calls doSearch() (which is the list-view handler, not defined in the edit context), so the language switch falls back to a generic page reload that does not re-append the current referer query parameter.
• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/edit_contentlet.jsp lines 216–230 — when the reloaded request arrives without a referer parameter, the fallback constructs a referer pointing at the child contentlet itself, erasing the parent breadcrumb.

Suggested fix

In languages_select_inc.jsp, when rendered in the edit-contentlet context, build the language-switch URL explicitly and append the current referer JS variable (already in scope from edit_contentlet_js_inc.jsp line 80):

onChange: function() {
    var langId = this.getValue();
    window.location = '<edit-contentlet action URL>&cmd=edit&inode=<inode>'
                    + '&language_id=' + langId
                    + '&referer=' + referer;
}

Alternatively, broaden the referer-detection heuristic in edit_contentlet.jsp to accept portlet action URLs containing /ext/contentlet/edit_contentlet as a valid referer.

Relevant files

• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/edit_contentlet.jsp
• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/edit_contentlet_js_inc.jsp
• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/languages_select_inc.jsp
• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/contentlet_actions_inc.jsp
• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/edit_contentlet_relationships.jsp
• dotCMS/src/main/webapp/html/portlet/ext/contentlet/field/relationship_field.jsp
• dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotmarketing/portlets/contentlet/action/EditContentletAction.java

Test gaps

No automated UI tests cover the legacy edit-content screen; no integration test exercises the referer round-trip through EditContentletAction. Manual reproduction is currently the only verification path.