Searching for/following writefreely instances doesn’t work. (webfinger acct: issue)

[Moonbase59]

Describe the bug
Searching for/following writefreely instances doesn’t work in Nextcloud: Going to "Social" and doing a search doesn’t give any results, so I can’t follow. In Mastodon, this works without problem.

Examples:

• @matthias@blog.syvi.net
• @tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net

Following a Mastodon account (@azuracast@fosstodon.org) did work.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to 'Social'
2. Click on 'Search'
3. Enter one of the above
4. No results

Expected behavior
A search result should appear that I’m able to follow.

Screenshots
—

Client details:

• OS: Misc Linuxes (Arcolinux/Cinnamon, Linux Mint 21.1/Cinnamon)
• Browser: Firefox 111, 112; Chromium 111, 112
• Device: Desktop, Laptop

Server details

**Social app version:** 0.6.0-rc2

Operating system: Ubuntu 22.04-LTS

Web server:

Database:

PHP version:

Nextcloud version: AIO v5.0.0

Logs

Nextcloud log (data/nextcloud.log)

Insert your Nextcloud log here

Browser log

Insert your browser log here, this could for example include:

a) The javascript console log
b) The network log
c) ...

[srijansaxena11]

I don't think blog.syvi.net is using the webfinger protocol which allows Nextcloud Social to search for accounts. Because https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:@tech-snippets gives error page instead of account details. Therefore, it is not the error at Social app side but it's at the other end.

[Moonbase59]

Thanks for investigating! In Nextcloud, as an example, I was searching for "@tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net", and a manual request in the browser

https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net

actually returns

Unfortunately, I don’t (yet) know enough about the specs as to be sure how an "acct:" request must look like, but including the leading "@", as in

https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:@tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net

seems to get rewritten to

https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net

and returns the same result as above.

Also on Mastodon, following "@tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net" works like a treat:

So there must be at least some subtle difference.

[Moonbase59]

Further investigation shows the extra "@" might have been a Firefox caching issue. When I use a new private window for each manual webfinger test, I only get a result using

https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net

The following tries all result in an empty page:

https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:@tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net
https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:tech-snippets
https://blog.syvi.net/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:@tech-snippets

Neither of the following Nextcloud searches yields a result, though:

@tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net
tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net

[Moonbase59]

The Mastodon docs appear saying that the initial "@" has to be left out on the "acct:" webfinger request:

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/webfinger/

At least, all examples translate the example "@Gargron@mastodon.social" mention to a webfinger acct: request without the initial "@":

https://mastodon.social/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:gargron@mastodon.social

and this works with all Mastodon instances I tried, also for my writefreely blog.

Also, RFC 7565 indicates to use a "mailto:" scheme like "user@domain.tld".

So I think the Nextcloud search should translate the "@tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net" mention into a webfinger "acct:tech-snippets@blog.syvi.net" request directed at my domain, which in turn will provide a valid JSON answer, which can then be used for further AcitivityPub protocol interactions.

[srijansaxena11]

You did great debugging! It's confusing now what is the actual issue here. I verified everything posted by you and it is pin point correct. Also mastodon's webfinger also works with username@domain.com only, not with @username@domain.com, @username, or only username which is the same behaviour as that of blog.syvi.net. But mastodon users can be searched fine whereas blog.syvi.net users cannot be. I wonder why. Will wait for someone more experienced to comment and share some insights.

[Moonbase59]

Thanks, and looking forward to whatever good things you may find (and implement)… ;-)

Note that writefreely instances are kinda ActivityPub "bridge into the Fediverse", meant to be followed only. They don’t support "two-way" communication like commenting back. That is supposed to happen on Mastodon, Nextcloud, wherever. It is just a way to have a minimalist blog (with longer posts than usual) and being able to follow it elsewhere. So they might not offer the full functionality (but work great on Mastodon and hopefully soon on Nextcloud).

[Moonbase59]

Seems "Social" doesn’t get much love… Any progress on this?

Stumbled again on the search not working today when searching for !jellyfin@lemmy.ml from this page.