module :http_uri not available in OTP release

[seanpascoe]

I'm using the URLValidator.validate_url function and it works great in development. I created a phoenix production release and it is erroring at that function with ** (UndefinedFunctionError) function :http_uri.parse/1 is undefined (module :http_uri is not available). I'm fairly new to elixir and I'm having a hard time figuring out why that erlang module wouldn't be available in the release.

[aparod]

You're probably running different versions of Erlang between your dev and prod environments. I'm on Erlang/OTP 24 and it gives me a warning that :http_uri.parse/1 is deprecated and will be removed in OTP 25.

[achedeuzot]

Hm indeed, it looks like a difference in OTP versions. Thanks @aparod ❤️
We'll have to look for a replacement of the :http_uri.parse function for this validator for OTP > 25.

[allenwyma]

What about URI.new/1 in Elixir?

[allenwyma]

hi @achedeuzot its' been quite some time and this issue still isn't resolved. I've also noticed you have quite a few dependabot PRs waiting to be updated.

Did you need some help with this project?

[achedeuzot]

@allenwyma I'd be happy to have a hand on it indeed, I've been quite busy lately so I've struggled to find time to maintain this even tough I still use it in production.

[allenwyma]

I'm more than happy to help out on this cause I'd hate to see such a useful package stalled out due to someone being busy. :)

[allenwyma]

@achedeuzot as a workaround, erlang uses to use :uri_string, so I was looking at :uri_string.parse/1 but these URIs are failing in the test to be marked as false:

rdar://1234
h:/test
ftps://foo.bar/

[achedeuzot]

They do look false though, don't they ? Well we can set them as truthy but it might provide a less strict validation which could have unintended consequences on end-users of the lib :/ This option would probably require a lib major version bump so users are aware of the breaking change.

What about using URI.parse/1 ?

[allenwyma]

URI.parse/1 will parse anything:

iex> URI.parse("foo/bar")
%URI{
  fragment: nil,
  host: nil,
  path: "foo/bar",
  port: nil,
  query: nil,
  scheme: nil,
  userinfo: nil
}

[allenwyma]

@achedeuzot let me know what you think of #88

I went back and looked at the code for http_uri and looks like they hard checked for certain ports if they are there or not, which is what i tried to emulate.

[achedeuzot]

#88 looks good :)

I'm just a bit unsure of using uri_string vs URI.parse, WDYT is more future proof ?

[allenwyma]

replaced with URI.parse/1 and seems to work fine, at least for the tests.

[achedeuzot]

Looks good with URI.parse/1 :)
It seems the CI script will need a bit of a refresher too for erlang / elixir compatibility matrix.

[allenwyma]

@achedeuzot no idea how this stuff works, can you take a moment to try to fix that?

[joeyates]

Hi @achedeuzot (pinging also @allenwyma and @esacteksab)

I'd be willing to sort out the URI stuff and the CI matrix, but I think it would be a good idea to clarify a couple of things first...

URI Parsing

Firstly, uri_string is not available in all OTP versions: "Module uri_string was introduced in OTP 21.0"

Secondly, it is not possible to specify a minimum OTP version in mix.exs - it's an explicit policy.

But, URI.parse/1 has been around since well before Elixir 1.9.0. And this library declares 1.9 as it's minimal supported version.

So, I think the best way forward with URI parsing is to switch to using Elixir's URI.parse/1.

Build Matrix

The current CI configuration runs 3*4 - 5 = 7 builds.

In comparison, Ecto runs 3.

I propose reducing down to 3. I would keep the same minimum versions as now (Elixir 1.9.4 and OTP 20.3), plus the latest releases of both (currently Elixir 1.16.0 and OTP 26.2.1) plus one more in the middle (Elixir 1.13, OTP 23).

[joeyates]

Additional note: it would be necessary to implement the failure cases of http_uri.parse/1 as URI.parse/1 accepts any String.

[achedeuzot]

Hi @joeyates 👋

I haven't had the time lately to give this lib the love it deserves. I'm happy to merge PRs that fix or improve the CI as well as the compatibility matrix and support :)

[joeyates]

I've made a PR (#90) with the introduction of URI.new/1 to replace calls to the OTP function :http_uri.parse/1.

[achedeuzot]

All the pending pull requests have been merged and/or the corresponding issue fixed.
There's a new release: 0.3.5 🎉

Thank you all for your contributions ❤️🤗