Incident Report: Handsontable 14.6-15.0 Clipboard Disruption in Chrome 133+
Status: RESOLVED
Summary
Following the Chrome 133 release on February 4, 2025, clipboard operations (copy & paste) in Handsontable have stopped functioning. The issue requires further investigation by our team to understand the undocumented breaking change in the Chrome API.
Impact
- All clipboard operations (copy, cut, paste) are non-functional in Handsontable 15.0.0, 14.6.1 and 14.6.0
- Affects all implementations using Handsontable with Chrome 133, released on February 4, 2025.
- Expected workflow disruption for users relying on clipboard functionality
Root Cause
Preliminary investigation indicates an undocumented breaking change in Chrome 133’s clipboard API implementation, which conflicts with Handsontable’s clipboard handling mechanisms. The precise root cause remains under investigation. However, we’ve identified the change in the Handsontable code originally introduced in v14.6, enabling us to create small code snippets that temporarily resolve the problem without necessitating a Handsontable version update.
Current Status
- Our engineering team is prioritizing the investigation of this issue and following our Incident Response Plan (IRP).
- We’re working on developing and testing a fix that looks promising but will require updating the Handsontable version: PR 11428
- The timeline for resolution is pending, schedule for the fix is on Monday (Feb 10, 2024), following versions:
- Patch for the current major version: 15.0.1
- Patch for the previous major version: 14.6.2
Temporary Workarounds
Users experiencing this issue can implement one of the following workarounds:
- Monitor npm for an upcoming fix release (scheduled for Monday 10th)
- Downgrade Chrome browser to version 132
- Downgrade Handsontable to version 14.5.0
- Use a custom snippet of code that seems to be fixing the issue:
Next Steps
- Complete root cause analysis of the Chrome API changes
- Develop and test a permanent fix
- Publish technical details and solution on the official blog
- Release the patched version via npm
- Improve the QA pipeline to test Canary versions of Chrome more strictly
Release Schedule Notice
In accordance with our quality assurance policies, we maintain a strict no-Friday-releases policy. While we are working urgently on the fix, any releases will be scheduled for Monday to ensure thorough QA testing and minimize potential risks.
Quality and stability remain our top priorities.
The timeline for resolution is pending, schedule for the fix is for Monday versions:
- Version 15.0.1 fixing issue for 15.0.0
- Version 14.6.2 fixing issue for 14.6.1
Communication
- Technical blog post with detailed explanation and permanent fix will be published when available
- Follow our GitHub repository and npm package for updates
- Monitor our official channels for the announcement of the fix release
Updates
We will update this incident report as new information becomes available.
For urgent inquiries or to report related issues, please open a GitHub issue on our repository or write us at support@handsontable.com.