4.5: Sailfish Browser is unable to receive long URLs from Android apps

Is anyone else seeing some links from email newsletters (my main use case here) not being loaded by Browser?

Symptom: Browser opens, but last seen tab stays on screen, new URL doesn’t load unless pasted in manually.

I think it’s some kind of a URL length or parsing problem with xdg-open - it’s the only pattern I think I see here. Was anything of the sort introduced with recent Sailfish versions?

Example link from Quora: https://www.quora.com/qemail/track_click?al_imp=eyJ0eXBlIjogMzMsICJoYXNoIjogIjB8MXwxfDE0Nzc3NDM3MjcyMzg3MDUifQ%3D%3D&al_pri=0&aoid=FqNH4XP6GPH&aoty=1&aty=4&cp=1&ct=1704030134513355&et=146&id=dc95f320ea084a3482ec47da49a1ef43&notif_type=418&request_id=418&snid=63639301696&src=1&st=1704030134528317&stories=[(<story_types.tribe_post%3A+10>%2C+137425646)%2C+(<story_types.tribe_post%3A+10>%2C+137146292)%2C+(<story_types.tribe_post%3A+10>%2C+137217222)]&tribe_item_ids=msh3TZUmQj1|RsuRjeqFtk6|LFXcqb9m2fU&uid=Rc9UXOf8136&v=0

I tried opening the URL you posted with xdg-open "<URL>" and it opened fine in Browser. Quotes were required because the URL contains unescaped bracets, at least.

I’m tapping these links from Android email client, Aqua Mail https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.AquaMail&hl=en&gl=US

I’ll test from another Android app next.

I also sent a HTML mail to myself, which contained a link to the said address. I clicked it in Email and opened it in Browser and in Fennec Android browser (~Firefox). No issues here…

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Manually pasting it into the browser works ok.

Both email and documents app recognize only the first half as a link:

Tappng that just brings me to Quora’s front page.

But the URL might not be canonical.

Google profits from working around badly coded shit. Sometimes they even create it, and force the rest of the world to do it too.

The URL is not properly encoded. I believe the stories parameter should look like this in its decoded form:

stories=[(<story_types.tribe_post: 10>, 137425646), (<story_types.tribe_post: 10>, 137146292), (<story_types.tribe_post: 10>, 137217222)]

The tribe_item_ids parameter needs the pipes escaped, too:

tribe_item_ids=msh3TZUmQj1|RsuRjeqFtk6|LFXcqb9m2fU

The URL looks like this properly encoded (I hope):

https://www.quora.com/qemail/track_click?al_imp=eyJ0eXBlIjogMzMsICJoYXNoIjogIjB8MXwxfDE0Nzc3NDM3MjcyMzg3MDUifQ%3D%3D&al_pri=0&aoid=FqNH4XP6GPH&aoty=1&aty=4&cp=1&ct=1704030134513355&et=146&id=dc95f320ea084a3482ec47da49a1ef43&notif_type=418&request_id=418&snid=63639301696&src=1&st=1704030134528317&stories=%5B%28%3Cstory_types.tribe_post%3A+10%3E%2C+137425646%29%2C+%28%3Cstory_types.tribe_post%3A+10%3E%2C+137146292%29%2C+%28%3Cstory_types.tribe_post%3A+10%3E%2C+137217222%29%5D&tribe_item_ids=msh3TZUmQj1%7CRsuRjeqFtk6%7CLFXcqb9m2fU&uid=Rc9UXOf8136&v=0

This now works with xdg-open without quotes (but the question mark must be escaped still because it’s a wildcard character in shell).

The original URL is just horribly constructed, that’s all.

3 Likes

Here’s another URL https://learn.percona.com/e3t/Ctc/T5+113/c4R9l04/VV_J4t6y-9ZcW96Dd7G6bbfkJW7xsyK957XzkwN3DlwF65nR32W5BWr2F6lZ3mRW6YFz574qm6nSW4C1W3S22D3fNW7NBRVX2PC7NNW6gDfQW7FNTHNW5N_Qbc3Cmz-sW36tSpH7wcVH4W94XzxC2YjMrjW3T38kQ17c4prW5JyvHw2PKxnhW41wBP078N3CmN8nMGww7NxKWW5Fn4mq8s18q3N7vlhSwpyL5NV4ydxN2pP4h3W2hNbQT5mjglHW8cJqsf2rx5pkW90njdz8LxB7zW5m6Qzr385PJ3W17w9L556kmFSW2V_4Rc116NH-W7L5F0W5PN4FqW5qfkq63XKkLHW6gXMqt78sHc1W4lWnDZ2Jnv4yN8hvgTcGn3zDW4jsB5M7R-GswN7xww18z6dJ_Vj25PL2FLFh2W3RZ0Px8flFgYVT1NvP1HDvv_W5y6dFV8dDt-LW48zggg3rXVyFW2g6wWv3zSkRHW51JfCf3J9sppf5QkH3K04

Yes, xdg-open works.

But this seems to be something Android. Pasting this link into Slack also replicates the same problem: Browser opens but doesn’t load the new URL.

@rainemak is this tracked by Jolla? It’s a real annoying App Support bug.

Forgot to reply, yes marked as tracked.

2 Likes

Wow, I see fixed tag already, nice!

Anything that can be applied on 4.5?

1 Like

Not really, fix will be part of 4.6.0 Sauna Release

4 Likes

4.6.0 is a very anticipated and awaited release at this time, after one full year of 4.5.0 that received mixed reviews, there’s the need of a newer and bug-free version :slight_smile: