Last modified: 2009-10-11 18:11:09 UTC
Gentlemen, please do not put "<!-- diff generator: internal 2009-09-07 20:40:16 -->" comments into feeds! Many RSS readers make a checksum, and this changing item causes articles to appear new each time! No other feed providers do this.
Lowering severity.
Created attachment 6546 [details] turn off damaging debugging comments in production environment You don't understand how serious the problem is. For rapidly changing wikis, users won't notice the problem. But for small wikis, you will be doubling the users RSS stored articles each time he browses... and he will wonder why they have reappeared again as new. Let's see the difference in the same HTTP GET of index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=rss before and after doing TRUNCATE TABLE objectcache: >@@ -24 +24 @@ >- <lastBuildDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:09:25 GMT</lastBuildDate> >+ <lastBuildDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:12:10 GMT</lastBuildDate> >@@ -87 +87 @@ >-<!-- diff generator: internal 2009-09-13 00:09:26 --> >+<!-- diff generator: internal 2009-09-13 00:12:10 --> Well, we see the lastBuildDate holds the same information, so the attached patch to remove the superfluous diff generator comment will not remove any information, and at the same time not confuse RSS readers into thinking the article has changed! The better maintained a wiki is (the more often it is updated), the more frustrated the user becomes, as each update truncates the objectcache, causing the comments you are putting into the bodies to change. Keep your debugging comments off in production environments please.
Removing patch keyword, not a desirable solution.
And furthermore: "But I'm only putting comments into an XML feed." No you are not. Comments look like <!-- ... -->, not encoded. "But I provide a Last-modified HTTP header." Yes, however all it takes is for one item in the feed to change, and then we get all the items which contain diffs change. Caching 101... the basics, don't spoil it.
Committed similar solution in r56406.
Thanks. Discussion logged in http://news.gmane.org/group/gmane.org.wikimedia.mediawiki/thread=32143 .
