1794775 - should parse rss2 even if channel link is incomplete

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Feed Reader, defect)

Description

[Thilo [:ThiloteE]]

Problem:

Thunderbird fails to fetch from following rss/atom feed: https://www.bayern.landtag.de/webangebot2/rss/feed.rss?art=BESCHL&titel=Drucksachen%2Bvon%2Bbeschlossenen%2BGesetzentw%C3%BCrfen

Reason: In TB UI, it just says: Feed is not valid.

QuiteRSS can fetch this feed without problems.

Results of search for culprit:

Check for validity with w3.org feed validator found a few issues.

I notified the Organisation, but apparently, they are unwilling for whatever reason or maybe too incompetent to change their feed content and syntax, which is a pity, because this is one of the most important institutional bodies of my regional government. :/

Moving on. One issue in particular stood out that could potentially be solved by Thunderbird client side:

line 5, column 37: link must be a full and valid URL: /webangebot2/webangebot/rss [help]

        <link>/webangebot2/webangebot/rss</link>
                                         ^

Proposed solution:

Fallback to user added link when url in feed is incomplete and triggers error.
The user added link would be the one the user entered in the UI to add the feed.

Hence: If the feed is non-valid because of invalid url, then replace /webangebot2/webangebot/rss with https://www.bayern.landtag.de/webangebot2/rss/feed.rss?art=BESCHL&titel=Drucksachen%2Bvon%2Bbeschlossenen%2BGesetzentw%C3%BCrfen and check for validity again.

Additional Remarks:

Since quiteRSS can fetch this feed, it means Thunderbird would in theory be able to do the same...

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This isn't new in version 102 ?

Comment 2

[Thilo [:ThiloteE]]

I experience the same with Thunderbird version 91.12, so no, not new.
I experience the same with Thunderbird Daily version 107.0a1 (2022-09-28) (64-Bit) (linux)

Comment 3

[Thilo [:ThiloteE]]

See Bug 1671237

Comment 4

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

FeedParser.parseAsRSS2: missing mandatory element <title> and <description>, or <link>

The RSS2 spec says:

[channel] This element is required and must contain three child elements: description, link and title.

For atom we don't care. https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/5f59e3d23a6d1ab84c43ea0b89fea0138297a1e2/mailnews/extensions/newsblog/FeedParser.jsm#752,786,800

It seems it would be fine ignoring the incorrect link.

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1794775 - should parse rss2 even if channel link is incomplete. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Comment 6

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/5ef6d42173ef
should parse rss2 even if channel link is incomplete. r=leftmostcat

Comment 7

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9299611 [details]
Bug 1794775 - should parse rss2 even if channel link is incomplete. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): not a regression I think
User impact if declined: can't access some feed content
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): c-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): seems safe

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9299611 [details]
Bug 1794775 - should parse rss2 even if channel link is incomplete. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 9

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 107.0b3:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/2e4c89aecaa6

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9299611 [details]
Bug 1794775 - should parse rss2 even if channel link is incomplete. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

Comment 11

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.5.0:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/4e6fca6175b5