When the context parameter is set, there is logging in the Firebug console to indicate the request for the browser history iframe src has been disabled:
[window.synchronizer] Browser history tracking is disabled.
and the history iframe markup looks like this:
<iframe frameborder="0"
title="Icefaces Redirect"
style="z-index: 10000; visibility: hidden; width: 0; height: 0; position: absolute; opacity: 0.22; filter: alpha(opacity=22);"
src="javascript:document.write('<html></html>');"
name="history-frame:w-tba787KQtAv_zB9l9y8g:1"
id="history-frame:w-tba787KQtAv_zB9l9y8g:1">
</iframe>
So the "src" attribute attempts to write an empty HTML page rather than make a request to the server. By setting disableBrowserHistory=false, the iframe markup looks like this:
<iframe frameborder="0"
title="Icefaces Redirect"
style="z-index: 10000; visibility: hidden; width: 0; height: 0; position: absolute; opacity: 0.22; filter: alpha(opacity=22);"
src="/DummyIcefacesWar/xmlhttp/blank"
name="history-frame:Qb4FdTBzmfnjWd5CIJYicQ:1"
id="history-frame:Qb4FdTBzmfnjWd5CIJYicQ:1">
</iframe>
This is the default behaviour and a request will be sent to the server to retrieve a blank document that looks something like this:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
So when it's disabled and we use the javascript: URL method to write out some content, on Firefox and IE, the page gives the impression that the content doesn't fully load - the tab shows the content loading animation and the status bar (in Firefox, anyway) shows "Transerring data from localhost...". And this continues to display forever.
Chrome and Safari do not show this behaviour. There does not appear to be an open connection in this case but the browsers are simply in a state where the status indicators for incoming data are set incorrectly and are never properly set back. Perhaps there is something not being executed (like the iframe.onload) which would lead to some of the browsers thinking that the documented had not completed loading yet.
Checked in revision #24631 to the icefaces/trunk.