1828331 - The "Article not found" error page is not shown for "Remove All Expired Articles" (this._msgWindow is undefined)

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: NNTP, defect, P3)

Description

[Alfred Peters [:infofrommozilla]]

If an article is no longer available on the server, the "Article not found" error page should be displayed.
In the TB113.0b1 I only get an empty window.

Comment 1

[Alfred Peters [:infofrommozilla]]

The "Article not found" page should be created here:
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/news/src/NntpClient.jsm#192

          if (this._msgWindow && this._articleNumber) {

but this._msgWindow is undefined.

And this is because in Bug 1799764 the [top.]msgWindow parameter for messageService.DisplayMessage( was replaced by null:
https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D161656

https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mail/base/content/aboutMessage.js#193

    messageService.DisplayMessage(uri, browser.docShell, null, null, null, {});

This is then passed on, up to the this._msgWindow above.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Thanks Alfred for detailed analysis!

Comment 3

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1828331 - Some refactoring of nsIMsgMessageService. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Rename DisplayMessage to loadMessage + remove unused outUrl. This is a more appropriate name as it's strictly not just about displaying, but used for e.g. copying too.
OutUrl was passed around to CopyMessage.

Rename CopyMessage to copyMessage and remove unused outUrl.

Comment 4

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1828331 - Pass in msgWindow to loadMessage so that "Article not found" can work. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Depends on D176129

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Alfred, are you able to test the patches? I'm not sure where to find an expired article.

Comment 6

[Alfred Peters [:infofrommozilla]]

D176129 unfortunately not. I do not have a working build environment.

D176130: Just reinserting top.msgWindow does not work. TB throws an exception:

mailnews.nntp: NS_ERROR_FAILURE: Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIMsgWindow.displayURIInMessagePane]
    _onData resource:///modules/NntpClient.jsm:209
NntpClient.jsm:216:28
    _onData resource:///modules/NntpClient.jsm:216

https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/news/src/NntpClient.jsm#209

              this._msgWindow.displayURIInMessagePane(

Comment 7

[BB]

We can try it, but we're equally unsure where to find expired articles. Don't they happen when some articles are removed a while after initially downloading a newsgroup? So on a new profile with newly setup newsgroups there wouldn't be any? That said, we've found some on an existing profile in a.c.s.thunderbird.

Comment 8

[Alfred Peters [:infofrommozilla]]

The easiest way is to create one yourself. For this you need a 2nd TB ("TB-b").

1. post an article to a test group with "TB-b".
2. with "TB-a" subscribe and update the group without viewing the article. Otherwise it will be cached.
3. cancel the article with "TB-b": Menu -> Message -> Cancel Message
4. show the article with "TB-a"...

Comment 9

[BB]

With both patches applied, we see what Alfred posted in comment #6. this._msgWindow.displayURIInMessagePane() tries to display this URI about:newserror?r=No such article number 6070&m=9cf564d2-f3e5-4f74-abf7-67b8affd96b0n%40googlegroups.com&k=6070&f=news://news.eternal-september.org/alt.de.test and fails.

A bit of debugging showed that DisplayURIInMessagePane() fails in GetMessageWindowDocShell():
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/04176849c949facaabc16deb07dd2e42b81b5173/mailnews/base/src/nsMsgWindow.cpp#73
likely due to some Supernova changes.

Comment 10

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Right, this should apparently be handled some other way now. See https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/04176849c949facaabc16deb07dd2e42b81b5173/mail/base/content/aboutMessage.js#193
This is the last use of DisplayURIInMessagePane/DisplayHTMLInMessagePane

Comment 11

[BB]

The now failing GetMessageWindowDocShell() is still called in a few places:
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/search?q=GetMessageWindowDocShell&path=&case=false&regexp=false
Also note bug 1758743 in this context.

Comment 12

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Updating whiteboard to [supernova3p]. 20230424_2303

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/ac54a319662f
Some refactoring of nsIMsgMessageService. r=benc

Comment 14

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1828331 - Fix showing "Article not found" error page for expired nntp articles. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Add a way to show error pages.

Comment 15

[MM]

After D176753, displayURIInMessagePane() and its remaining last other unused caller displayHTMLInMessagePane() can be removed.

Comment 16

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yeah, planning to do that.

Comment 17

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1828331 - Remove unused msgWindow.displayURIInMessagePane/displayHTMLInMessagePane. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Depends on D176753

Comment 18

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/7a3924d978a4
Fix showing "Article not found" error page for expired nntp articles. r=aleca

Comment 19

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/e2b52692b39f
Remove unused msgWindow.displayURIInMessagePane/displayHTMLInMessagePane. r=BenC