[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Olivier Tilloy]

Lowering importance as the browser now allows downloading files without
choosing a target application upfront.

** Changed in: webbrowser-app (Ubuntu)
   Importance: High => Medium

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Olivier Tilloy]

** Description changed:

  On touch devices, this is what happens when a user clicks on a link that
  triggers a download, or triggers one from the context menu:
  
-  - oxide issues a downloadRequested signal with a URL, and optionally 
headers, a suggested filename and a mime type
-  - the browser instantiates a Downloader component and calls its 
downloadMimeType() method, which converts the passed mime type to a well-known 
content type (e.g. ContentType.Pictures) and instantiates a SingleDownload 
component, passing it the headers and content type
-  - the SingleDownload instance, once its gets assigned a unique download ID 
by the DownloadManager, shows a ContentPeerPicker on screen which uses the 
passed in content type to prompt the user to choose a target application that 
will own the downloaded file
-  - the actual downloading of the file doesn’t start until the user has picked 
a target application
+  - oxide issues a downloadRequested signal with a URL, and optionally 
headers, a suggested filename and a mime type
+  - the browser instantiates a Downloader component and calls its 
downloadMimeType() method, which converts the passed mime type to a well-known 
content type (e.g. ContentType.Pictures) and instantiates a SingleDownload 
component, passing it the headers and content type
+  - the SingleDownload instance, once its gets assigned a unique download ID 
by the DownloadManager, shows a ContentPeerPicker on screen which uses the 
passed in content type to prompt the user to choose a target application that 
will own the downloaded file
+  - the actual downloading of the file doesn’t start until the user has picked 
a target application
  
  This works well if the mime type is known in advance, and can be trusted
  (indeed a server can lie about the mime types of files it serves). In
  several cases, the mime type isn’t known in advance (or cannot be
  trusted), and the browser will outright refuse to download the file
  because it doesn’t know which application to transfer ownership to.
  
  There must be a way to decouple the actual downloading from the target
  application selection, so that the mime type is not mandatory
  information, and users can pick which application to transfer ownership
  to after the file has been downloaded.
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ Steps to observe the issue (from bug #1510187):
+ 
+ 1. Go to .
+ 2. Scroll down to the "Attachments" list.
+ 3. Long-tap on "An idea for a good solution".
+ 4. Choose "Save link".
+ 
+ What happens: "Sorry, there aren't currently any apps installed that can
+ handle this type of content."
+ 
+ What should happen: The Gallery is offered as an app to save the image
+ to.

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Fortunately, there is a detailed spec for "probably not trust the
mimetype provided by the server". Modern browsers compute the MIME type
based mainly on a combination of the supplied MIME type, and the first
512 bytes of the downloaded resource.  Oxide probably
follows this spec already. If the download service is restarting the
download (ignoring for the moment the multiple problems with that
approach), it should reimplement that spec.

(One of the problems is, as Chris says, that on the second request, the
server response may be different, so the MIME type you compute may be
different. A pathological example of this would be that the second
serving is of a type where the only installed app that can handle it is
... Browser.)

All that aside, if you tap a link, you expect that it might take a while
(and if it does, the browser will show some kind of waiting indicator).
So the browser can wait for as long as the server takes to begin the
response, read the first 512 bytes, compute the MIME type, and then hand
it off to the download service.

If you choose "Save Link", it's more difficult: people expect some kind
of selection UI within a couple of seconds. So what browsers tend to do
is make the request, wait for a couple of seconds for the server to
start sending the response, and if it does, set up the picker informed
by that response. If the server doesn't respond in time, the browser
sets up the picker informed by what it does know already (mainly the
URL, which isn't worth much).

If the server hasn't responded within a couple of seconds, you could
give it some extra time by putting up a picker containing nothing but a
spinner. That would reassure the user for a couple more seconds, but
after that you would still need to populate the picker with default
choices.

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

** Changed in: content-hub (Ubuntu)
   Status: New => Confirmed

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

** Changed in: ubuntu-download-manager (Ubuntu)
   Status: New => Confirmed

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Olivier Tilloy]

** Summary changed:

- Downloading a file requires its mime-type in advance
+ Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Chris Coulson]

Just to be clear - there aren't really any cases where
DownloadRequest.mimeType from Oxide should be trusted to make a
decision. Even in the case where the download is triggered on the
Content-Disposition header where Oxide does know the mime-type, that
mime-type becomes untrustworthy the moment we discard the response and
ask someone else to do the download instead - at which point the server
could respond with something completely different.

Given the problems with this API in Oxide, I would like us to end up in
a position where we can deprecate (and eventually remove)
DownloadRequest.mimeType without breaking downloads.

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Olivier Tilloy]

Yes, that sounds like something we should bring up with design, given
that the two options, when available, provide redundant functionality.
Let’s discuss it today during our weekly design catchup.

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Michael Sheldon]

We don't really have a default option any more, in the case where we
know the mimetype we present the user with both options, and in the case
where we don't we just provide them with the download option (see
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1woHjO8K4iqyVZZlfQ4BXL0DhYbwkEmZ7wvcUhYzHDRk/edit#slide=id.gc87a1f9cb_1_0
for the relevant dialog design). I guess we could however just remove
the "Choose an application" option all together, perhaps something to
discuss with design?

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Michael Sheldon]

With the new internal downloads branch when we don't have a mime type we
just allow the user to download the file to the Downloads directory
without choosing an application, then after the download is finished
with run Qt's mimetype detection on the final file, we don't currently
override the server mimetype if this was provided for us though (we
trust the server), perhaps we should do that as well?

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Title:
  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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[Bug 1500742] Re: Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

[Olivier Tilloy]

Yes, we should probably not trust the mimetype provided by the server,
if we can extract a valid mime type from the downloaded file.

Also, I’m wondering if downloading directly to the Downloads folder
shouldn’t be the default option? What use case doesn’t this cover?

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  Downloading a file requires its mime-type to be known in advance

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