Web interface file browser doesn't handle errors
When a call to browse.xml
to list a directory fails, the user can be presented a completely empty file browser dialog, with no error message and no way to go back and continue browsing other directories. This is a rather poor user experience.
It seems that there are a number of underlying causes:
- Possible bugs in the server-side URL/path processing (see #5075 for example)
- Legitimate directory access errors at the filesystem level not properly detected or handled by various code layers, and returning an empty listing (missing even
..
) - Even if
browse.xml
returns an actual error, it does so with HTTP 200 (see #25000), which is then missed by the frontend controller
Regardless, the user shouldn't be presented with a dead end. Even if the above issues are fixed, maybe the frontend should still feature for example error messages, a static back button or alternative directory navigation options, or at least make sure ..
is always available.