Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Why is it that _I_ find all the weird edge case bugs?

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Why is it that _I_ find all the weird edge case bugs?

Posted 2004-04-06 02:52 PM in Bugs.

Here's a fanstastic bug, but what's funny is that it is acting exactly as it should! Newsgator is smart enough to follow HTTP 302 Responses, but when I went to the MVP Summit the Hotel's internal Internet (Lodgenet) was redirecting ALL HTTP GETs to their registration site. Happily following instructions, Newsgator updated my subscriptions and ate my OPML file. Sigh.

Thankfully I had a NewsGator Subscription, and went online to get my server-side copy and I'm back up.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 2:20:56 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Permanently overwriting in response to a 302 is what I would call an extremely serious bug. 302 is temporary redirect. At best, it should ask, but NEVER permanently overwrite from a 302.

A 301, on the other hand, is okay. That's a permanent redirect.

Brad Wilson

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 2:24:09 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Don't think of it as you getting stuck with weird bugs that nobody else has experienced.

Instead think "I am a pioneer!"

Aaron

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 2:52:05 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I would agree - overwriting URL's in response to a 302 is a serious bug.

However, we've seen this before in certain hotels. They are actually redirecting with a 301, not a 302 - and a 301 is a PERMANENT redirect.

One of our customers has gone round and round with Cisco on this (it's their hardware that we've seen do this), and they have yet to see the problems in their ways. It's very unfortunate.

Greg Reinacker

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 3:22:58 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I got burnt by Sharpreader & a hotel in the same way a long time back. I'd backed up my OPML file on a whim about 2 days previous.

frustrating though. I was in a hotel the other week that gave free wireless access, but still directed you to a site where you clicked 'register' which took you straight to the requested URL. nothing like a waste of a couple of HTTP requests!

Ian White

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 4:35:25 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Bah! Cisco sucks! :-p

Brad Wilson

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 4:57:20 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Makes me glad that I'm using Terminal Services to access my Outlook (and Newsgator) machine at home on the East coast, even if it is painfully slow. ;-)

G. Andrew Duthie

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 2:55:08 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I had exactly this happen to me a few weeks ago. http://blogs.msdn.com/micahel/archive/2004/03/24/95355.aspx.

Michael Hunter

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 2:59:05 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Easy fix for Greg/Newsgator -- check the URL to which the redirect leads (for 301) and only update the stored URL if the new URL contains a valid RSS file. If it doesn't, keep the current URL (most likely it will send the 301 for a while, but unless/until it redirects to an RSS file, it's not being helpful so ignore it).