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Issues with RSS feed "pubDate" node parsing for "Added" column


gitman

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I'm using a particular RSS feed which uses a pubDate node in RFC 2822 without the day-of-week prefix (ie. "Wed,"), which the RFC states is optional. Here's an example:

24 Aug 2013 15:08:41 +0000

Here's an example of the format that uTorrent does understand:

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 15:08:41 +0000

As you see, the only missing part is the "Sat,", but it seems that uTorrent versions 3.3.2 and older do not understand this format, and therefore display either a blank "Added" field, or a value relative to the last time the RSS feed was refreshed.

I also have three other RSS feeds configured in uTorrent. They all have a working "Added" field, and they all supply the day-of-week parameter. It is only this one feed that I am having an issue with. The administrator of the site is pushing back saying that its uTorrent's problem and that adding the parameter would be a work-around for uTorrent's problem.

So does anyone know the exact requirements that uTorrent has for the pubDate node format so that it can parse it into a proper "Added" column value? Or is the issue I have explained to you definitely a bug? I either need to report it, or I need to be able to go back to the site administrator with enough ammunition to get him to change it. According to W3C, he is right, however - if I pass the RSS feed in through their feed validator, it does not return an error on the pubDate. If I make any edits to the pubDate node, then the validator throws an error.

It would be great if you could configure which patterns uTorrent is using to match on the pubDate node.

RFC 2822 section 3.3 defines the date format as such:


3.3. Date and Time Specification

Date and time occur in several header fields. This section specifies
the syntax for a full date and time specification. Though folding
white space is permitted throughout the date-time specification, it
is RECOMMENDED that a single space be used in each place that FWS
appears (whether it is required or optional); some older
implementations may not interpret other occurrences of folding white
space correctly.

date-time = [ day-of-week "," ] date FWS time [CFWS]

day-of-week = ([FWS] day-name) / obs-day-of-week

Source: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822#section-3.3

RFC 2234 is the RFC that basically defines the syntax used in RFCs. Section 3.8 of RFC 2234 defines an "Optional Sequence" as:


3.8 Optional Sequence [RULE]

Square brackets enclose an optional element sequence:

[foo bar]

is equivalent to

*1(foo bar).

Source: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2234#section-3.8

Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

Thanks,

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  • 4 weeks later...
It is only this one feed that I am having an issue with.

Link? Even if it is a bug, do you think it is worth the effort?

Yeah , Hijackthis could have helped here a lot... I don't think I saw a requirement to post an RSS link in there ... No need to just show presence in a thread if you do not have anything productive to contribute focused on the issue

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Link? Even if it is a bug, do you think it is worth the effort?

it's a private tracker. i could probably provide some edited example XML if that would help.

in regards to whether or not its worth the effort, i think standards should be followed throughout - not just in part. if the standard says that the day-of-week parameter is optional, then i think utorrent should adhere to that rule for maximum compatibility. i also think its probably not a big effort to resolve as the logic is already there, you just have to change how it looks for it - but without access to source, then of course that's just a guess.

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