331892 - Live bookmark "Latest news" for Italian Firefox 1.5.X chrashes the site pointing to

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Michele Dal Corso]

In the Italian localization of Firefox we changed the english (BBC) Live bookmark "Latest news" to point to an Italian resource. We used a redirect in our site (http://www.mozillaitalia.org/fxfeed.xml ) that point to http://www.euronews.net/rss/euronews_it.xml

We chose that solution to avoid any undesired link change by the content provider, but we underestimate the growth of Firefox and now all the contacts generated by the live bookmarks crashes Apache in our shared hosting, generating  a major outage of all our web resources (http://www.mozillaitalia.org and http://forum.mozillaitalia.org ).

So we need that the link change ASAP in the default profile of new versions of Italian (it) Firefox 1.5.X, pointing directly to http://www.euronews.net/rss/euronews_it.xml or to a redirect managed by mozilla.org or mozilla-europe.org. 

I will create the patch for the bookmarks file after you indicate me what should I do...

Thank you

Comment 1

[Michele Dal Corso]

Another solution could be that Mozilla Corp. offer us a decent hosting (a dedicated server) for our works.
   We translate in Italian all major Mozilla's applications (Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Calendar, Sunbird, NVU...) and a lot of extensions via extenzilla.it , we also offer a good support in Italian for Mozilla products with our web forum (9000+ users), but we are not able to follow the growth of contacts in our server. 
   In the past year we bought a 930$ hosting plan paid with contributions, but it is still insufficient (now it is down). We are looking for a dedicated server that mantains mozillaitalia.org, forum.mozillaitalia.org and extenzilla.it : is there any chance to move to a server of Mozilla corp/Mozilla Europe?

Comment 2

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

I think the only way to fix this is to get the hosting fixed.
Changing the feed URL in the build is not going to help the server, as existing
profiles won't get that change.

Tristan?

Comment 3

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

The Spanish portal had the same RSS hits problem last summer to the point that it killed the server they had and had to close down for about a month. I found them a hosting company who accepted to host them for free in exchange of a small banner, but it couldn't work for a second portal (the friend I had there no longer works for that company).

I think Mozilla Europe should just go to a big Hosting company and ask for a partnership with them, we pay the hosting bills directly and the local community gets the access codes. One interlocutor. OVH sounds like a good target, they are big, they like Mozilla (they even use XUL apps internally and always visit us at trade shows) and they would probably be interested in this kind of partnership since they already support other opensource projects.

Comment 4

[Michele Dal Corso]

The rss file today killed our website (mozillaitalia.org). We use to redirect the xml file in our site to the source provider (actually ansa.it).

It seems that when the source file is not available, Firefox starts to request this file more frequently than in normal conditions. This behaviour kills Apache, using all available connections on the server. Shouldn't this be corrected?

Is it possible to move our web account (only www) to a mozilla-europe server?

Comment 5

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

If Firefox gets an HTTP error (like a 404 Not Found), then it switches to a next request after 5 minutes, instead of the default 60 minutes. A "fix" for that is unlikely to help you, even if it's accepted, since it's unlikely to go into the 1.5.0.x branch without extensive testing, which would probably get you out past the 2.0 timeframe.

But since it looks like you aren't redirecting, you can make Firefox work for you instead of against you: although it will keep checking every 60 minutes, it will check through the browser's cache, so if you have Apache send an Expires: header for 6 hours in the future, you should cut the number of hits you see by 1/6.

Comment 6

[Michele Dal Corso]

(In reply to comment #5)

> But since it looks like you aren't redirecting,

Yes, I changed tonight the behaviour from a redirect to a "cache" of the xml file (with a cron entry on our server that keep updated the feed): this avoid that the original feed suddenly disappears.

> you instead of against you: although it will keep checking every 60 minutes, it
> will check through the browser's cache, so if you have Apache send an Expires:
> header for 6 hours in the future, you should cut the number of hits you see by
> 1/6.
 
Thank you for this useful suggestion!

Comment 7

[Michele Dal Corso]

Today the server is yet down. I'm applying the Apache-cache header suggestion by Phil. I added this to .htacces in the root of the site:

ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType application/xml "access plus 6 hours"

and now in the headers of http://www.mozillaitalia.org/fxfeed.xml appears:

Cache-Control: max-age=21600
Expires: Fri, 05 May 2006 01:25:20 GMT

Is it correct for tweak Firefox's cache behaviour?
I will appreciate your help! Thank you!

Comment 8

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

So, the current bookmarks.html on the 1.8.0 branch has

 <DT><A HREF="http://www.mozilla-europe.org/it/products/firefox/live-book
marks/" LAST_MODIFIED="1149443788" FEEDURL="http://www.ansa.it/main/notizie/awnp
lus/topnews/synd/ansait_awnplus_topnews_medsynd_Today_Idx.xml" ID="rdf:#$HvPhC3"
>Ultime notizie</A>
 
The HREF is wrong, and what's that site? And that URL seems to get changed randomly recently, STOP that. Request trademarks approval for such changes, last warning.

Comment 9

[Michele Dal Corso]

(In reply to comment #8)
> So, the current bookmarks.html on the 1.8.0 branch has
> 
>  <DT><A HREF="http://www.mozilla-europe.org/it/products/firefox/live-book
> marks/" LAST_MODIFIED="1149443788"
> FEEDURL="http://www.ansa.it/main/notizie/awnp
> lus/topnews/synd/ansait_awnplus_topnews_medsynd_Today_Idx.xml"
> ID="rdf:#$HvPhC3"
> >Ultime notizie</A>
> 
> The HREF is wrong,

Why? In the en-us version it is http://fxfeeds.mozilla.com/ that redirect directly to http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/livebookmarks that is in English. I only localized the link. If this is not correct, please give me correct instructions and don't blame me. I am not Nostradamus and I don't know all links that you don't want to localize.

> and what's that site? And that URL seems to get changed
> randomly recently, STOP that. Request trademarks approval for such changes,

I am sorry about that, but our site passed a tragic situation and the provider threatened us.
Now the fxfeed link is managed by Mozilla Europe and now I restore immediately the old link.

Comment 10

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

(In reply to comment #9)
> I am sorry about that, but our site passed a tragic situation and the provider
> threatened us.
> Now the fxfeed link is managed by Mozilla Europe and now I restore immediately
> the old link.
> 

You didn't restore the old link. I don't see a bug requesting approval to use the mozilla-europe one, and licensing-wise, there have been concerns.
Please provide a viable option for an italian newsfeed including a permission from the service provider to use it, or revert back to the English BBC feed.

Comment 11

[Michele Dal Corso]

(In reply to comment #10)
> You didn't restore the old link.
You are wrong: Firefox 1.5 was shipped with http://www.mozillaitalia.org/fxfeed.xml link that initially pointed to Euronews, and when Euronews dismissed the service, to ANSA News. From when there is the need to request an approval for this link? YOU approved the link in Firefox 1.5 when you checked all the links in the bookmarks file. Why just now the link is bad?

> I don't see a bug requesting approval to use
> the mozilla-europe one, and licensing-wise, there have been concerns.

There was non changes on the link: now the original link www.mozillaitalia.org/fxfeed.xml is managed by Mozilla Europe. You was informed about this: all emails between me and Tristan Nitot, Peter Van der Beken and Mike Schroepfer was CCed to you.
   Why you create just now more stupid bureaucratic problems instead of helping us? I opened this bug in march: why you did not help us?

> Please provide a viable option for an italian newsfeed including a permission
> from the service provider to use it, or revert back to the English BBC feed.

The actual service provide the permission directly on line: http://www.ansa.it/main/html/ansa_rss.html

Condizioni d’uso
I feed RSS di ANSA possono essere usati per fini non commerciali da individui e organizzazioni no-profit e per la sola visualizzazione mediante programmi software di lettura e aggregazione di documenti RSS, detti Readers. Non è consentito il loro impiego per la pubblicazione di titoli delle ultime notizie ANSA su siti web o su weblog.

Just a raw translation:
Conditions of use
The ANSA Feeds can be used for non commercial purposes from singles and no-profit foundations and only for the viewing with readers and RSS aggregators software. You can't use the feed for showing latest ANSA news on web sites or blogs.


Really you want to restore the BBC link? The Italian market is the second in Europe after Germany (see http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox44-mozilla-firefox-has-slightly-increased.html ) and Italians doesn't like english news. You will damage a lot of people.

Please calm down a bit.

Comment 12

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Yes, I want you to restore the BBC feed for now.

General terms of use are void in the scope of Firefox. Get an explicit commitment of the service provider to keep this feed up, and performant. Randomly switching newsfeeds from one service provider to the next is not in the interest of our users.

There are several problems problems with what we're doing for the Italian feed, some of which have not been considered when we discussed this inside Mozilla Europe. In addition, any kind of mailing back and forth does not replace bugs and patches.

If you have a problem with that, feel free to escalate the issue. Because we do have a major problem here as it is.

I will calm down as soon as the Italian localization is not forming a potential block-ship hazard to Firefox 2.

Comment 13

[Michele Dal Corso]

Reverted back the original BBC feed.

Comment 14

[Giacomo Magnini]

Please Michele, close this bug as INVALID, since the issue has been resolved elsewhere in a different way, with much satisfaction for all of the parties involved.