[tor-bugs] #11826 [Globe]: Distinguish between permanent and temporary Onionoo errors

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#11826: Distinguish between permanent and temporary Onionoo errors
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 Reporter:  karsten      |          Owner:  rndm
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:
Component:  Globe        |        Version:
 Keywords:               |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:               |         Points:
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 Copied from #8667, also applies to Globe:

 As of now, Onionoo has a "maintenance mode" that I'm planning to use very
 rarely.  But sometimes it's necessary to shut down Onionoo to support new
 features or fix bugs.  During this time, Onionoo responds to all requests
 with a 503 Service Unavailable status code.  Atlas should respect this
 code and display a different warning than:

 "Backend error! The backend server replied with an error to your query.
 This probably means that you did not properly format your query. If your
 query was properly formatted it may mean that there is an issue with your
 browser/add-ons. Please report which browser/addons/etc. you're using to
 the bug tracker."

 How about this warning?

 "Backend temporarily unavailable! The backend server is temporarily
 unavailable. If this issue persists for more than a few hours, please
 report it using the <a
 href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/newticket?component=Atlas">bug
 tracker</a>."

 On a related note, should Atlas also distinguish between 400 Bad Request
 and 500 Internal Server Error (or 4xx and 5xx codes) by telling the user
 that the issue can more likely be found in the front-end or back-end? That
 would make for slightly better bug reports, I guess.

 https://onionoo.torproject.org/ now lists HTTP response codes and suggests
 actions.  Pasting here for simplicity:

 Response codes: Clients should handle response codes by distinguishing
 between client and server errors, and if there's a problem, informing
 their users about the kind of problem. The following response codes are
 used:

  - 200 OK: The request was processed successfully.
  - 304 Not Modified: Server data has not changed since the "If-Modified-
 Since" header included in the request.
  - 400 Bad Request: The request could not be processed either because the
 requested resource could not be found or because of bad syntax. This is
 most likely a client problem.
  - 500 Internal Server Error: There is an unspecific problem with the
 server which the service operator may not yet be aware of. Please check if
 there's already a bug report for this problem, and if not, file one.
  - 503 Service Unavailable: The server is temporarily down for
 maintenance, or there is a temporary problem with the server that the
 service operator is already aware of. Only file a bug report if this
 problem persists.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/11826>
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