[bug] login pages reorder url parameters on redirect

[SherpDaWerp]

When specifying /asnation=<foo> as a URL parameter, if you aren't logged in as <foo> then NS will give you a login prompt. Once you've logged in, NS directs you back to the original page you wanted to go to. However, when it does so, it re-orders all the other URL parameters (parameters being stuff like /nation=<foo>/dilemma=161/page=enact_dilemma).

When I have a userscript that matches based on a specific order of parameters, this causes problems. The original link I open is always of the same format: https://www.nationstates.net/container=*/page=enact_dilemma/choice-*=1/dilemma=*/template-overall=none/nation=*/asnation=*/t=*
I create these links with a Python script that simply formats values in, so the format doesn't change.

So far, I have encountered redirected URLs of the following 2 alternative formats:
https://www.nationstates.net/page=enact_dilemma/choice-*=1/container=*/asnation=*/template-overall=none/dilemma=*/t=*
https://www.nationstates.net/page=enact_dilemma/container=*/choice-*=1/asnation=*/template-overall=none/dilemma=*/t=*

More specifically, the following two exact urls (besides the deliberately removed token parameter) redirected after login to each of the above two formats, respectively.

https://www.nationstates.net/container=Imperial_Regiment_XIV/page=enact_dilemma/choice-3=1/dilemma=644/template-overall=none/nation=Imperial_Regiment_XIV/asnation=Imperial_Regiment_XIV/t=<censored>
https://www.nationstates.net/container=Imperial_Regiment_XV/page=enact_dilemma/choice-2=1/dilemma=161/template-overall=none/nation=Imperial_Regiment_XV/asnation=Imperial_Regiment_XV/t=<censored>

I know NS can deal with URL parameters in any order, but unfortunately, userscript matching patterns don't have that luxury. What makes these two URLs different such that they redirect to different pages post-login?

[[violet]]

This might be consistent now.

By the way, I've been trying to track down a weird /asnation= bug forever, where sometimes we seem to get nations loaded as strings instead of objects. Have you encountered any strange page errors when using /asnation?

[SherpDaWerp]

This might be consistent now.

By the way, I've been trying to track down a weird /asnation= bug forever, where sometimes we seem to get nations loaded as strings instead of objects. Have you encountered any strange page errors when using /asnation?

Thanks, I wasn't sure if this would be a "yes fix" or "no deal with it" type bug, so that's a welcome outcome.

I haven't seen any weird errors so far, but I'll keep my eye out.

The errors, would they redirect to a new page (like this) or would they appear in the same page? Part of the suite autocloses pages when they load, so if it's the latter I might not even see the issues before the tab closes.

[Racoda]

This might be consistent now.

By the way, I've been trying to track down a weird /asnation= bug forever, where sometimes we seem to get nations loaded as strings instead of objects. Have you encountered any strange page errors when using /asnation?

Not an obvious "error", but when re-investigating a related bug, I discovered trying to login when using this link https://www.nationstates.net/asnation=rsca/nation=racoda, when not logged in to any nation, generated a weird url:

Code: Select all

https://www.nationstates.net/page=display_other_nation/asnation=rsca/nref=Nation%253DHASH%25280x7f5c4cd9bd68%2529

The HTML login form also includes the same weirdness at the end:

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="target" value="display_other_nation">
<input type="hidden" name="target_parameters" value="nref=Nation%3DHASH%280x7f5c4cd9bd68%29&amp;asnation=rsca">
</form>

Hope this proves useful.

[[violet]]

YES that's it!! Brilliant, thank you.