merefield reports that Onebox links from AliExpress are failing on one Discourse server (2.4.0.beta11) but working on another, despite identical configurations. Using curl, they observed an extra 302 redirect on the failing server, which leads to a login prompt in a browser, unlike the working server. Stephen suggests the issue might involve CDN hotlink protection or differing backend servers, even though both servers are in the same datacenter and use the same load balancer. merefield notes the final URLs are the same, raising questions about trust or server-specific behavior. The discrepancy is frustrating and potentially linked to recent Onebox changes.
Guys, I’ve been experimenting with AliExpress as an affiliate.
Recently their Oneboxes have started to fail on the site I use them for.
I dug into things and noticed it works on another Discourse server of mine. Both have identical versions of Discourse (2.4.0.beta11) and are running on VPS from Scaleway using Ubuntu.
However, I compare the the trips from the command prompt using curl, I notice there is an extra 302 redirect on the server that is failing, even though they apparently resolve to the same URL ultimately.
Could this be causing things to fail with the current Onebox code?
I’m using the following to bring back the jumps (it includes the URL):
OK this is getting weirder yet closer to the reason I suspect:
If I take the final URL from the Curl and enter it into a local browser, the one from the failing server takes me to a log-on prompt, the one from the working server doesn’t.
Not necessarily, even the two source servers are in the same datacenter and hitting the same load balancer for a CDN they won’t necessarily be talking to the same backend machine.