Saved changes are reverting randomly and erratic behavior is seen when using multiple browser tabs

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

When working in the UI with multiple tabs open, you may observe erratic behavior or data loss. Symptoms include:

• Cloud Template YAML or ABX Action scripts seemingly revert to previous states or older drafts randomly after saving.

• Changes made to templates or actions in one browser tab are deleted or overwritten when refreshing or navigating back from a test execution tab.

• Having two or more organizations configured can occasionally lead to configuration elements (like Names of Cloud Proxies, Projects, and others) from one organization showing up incorrectly in the other.

Environment

VMware Aria Automation 8.x

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Automation 9.x

Cause

This is a known user experience limitation caused by a race condition in the Single Page Application (SPA) state-management architecture.

The user interface relies on client-side state management, utilizing the browser's Session Storage and Local Storage to maintain active contexts, draft payload data, and Organization/Project IDs. Modern web browsers share this storage scope across all tabs and windows spawned within the same active browser session.

When multiple tabs are open for the same environment, concurrent tabs do not maintain isolated states. An inactive or background tab holding a stale Document Object Model (DOM) state can trigger an auto-save event or refresh, pushing its older cached payload to the backend database. This overwrites the newer, active code development occurring in a separate tab, resulting in "context bleeding" and manifesting as a random reversion to an older draft.

Resolution

Relying on frontend UI storage for code preservation across multiple tabs is a limitation of shared browser storage. To prevent data loss or context bleeding, implement one of the following operational strategies:

Workaround 1: Single-Tab Execution Restrict the active authoring of ABX actions and Cloud Templates to a single browser tab to prevent auto-save collisions.

Workaround 2: Isolated Sessions If side-by-side comparison or testing is required, utilize isolated sessions to force a segregated storage context:

• Open an Incognito/Private browsing window.

• Utilize dedicated browser profiles (e.g., Chrome or Edge Profiles) which mandate entirely isolated file systems for cookies and storage states.

• Deploy the Firefox Multi-Account Containers extension to isolate cookies and session data per tab.

Workaround 3: GitOps / API-First Approach (Strategic Resolution) For production-grade development, maintain Cloud Templates (YAML) and ABX Action scripts in a version-controlled repository (e.g., GitLab/GitHub). Synchronize your code directly to the platform using the native Automation Assembler Git integration or idempotent REST API calls, bypassing browser-state limitations entirely.

Additional Information