Right-click download seems to produce wrong URL

[wynnsyt]

Summary

The download functionality within the web UI has never worked for me, and after inspecting developer console, I see that the download request yields a HTTP 403.

For example, if I have the following file structure on my PC, and I want to download the test.m file, the download function would make a request to a URL like http://localhost:port/downloadC%5Cmatlab%5Ctest.m

C:
└── matlab
    └── test.m

However, this URL with absolute path simply produces a 403. I am able to confirm that relative path does work:

• if my pwd is C:\matlab, this URL http://localhost:port/downloadtest.m works;
• if my pwd is C:, http://localhost:port/downloadmatlab%5Ctest.m works.

I am guessing since nobody has reported this, it has to be a weird issue with my setup.

This is with MATLAB 2022b on Windows 11, and matlab-proxy is on the latest version (0.26.0).

Browser(s) used

No response

Script output

No response

[rashedmyt]

Hi @wynnsyt ,

Thank you for reaching out. I was unable to reproduce the issue with downloading files using R2022b on Windows 11 with Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge browsers.

To help us investigate further, could you please provide the following information:

1. Which browser(s) have you experienced this issue with? Have you tried using a different browser, and if so, does the problem persist across all browsers?
2. Are you accessing the browser from the same machine where matlab-proxy is running?
3. Could you share the output from running the troubleshooting script?
4. Please try enabling DEBUG level logs and share the output with us. To do this, set the following environment variables before starting matlab-proxy-app:
   • MWI_LOG_LEVEL="DEBUG"
   • MWI_LOG_FILE="<absolute_path_to_log_file>"
5. You mentioned this might be a "weird issue with your setup." Is there anything unique or unusual about your configuration that you can share to help us reproduce the issue on our end?
6. Does this issue only occur when working with the C:\ drive (your operating system drive), or does it also affect other disk drives?

Thank you,
Rashed

[wynnsyt]

Please find my response below:

1. Which browser(s) have you experienced this issue with? Have you tried using a different browser, and if so, does the problem persist across all browsers?

MS Edge and Google Chrome produce the same issue.

2. Are you accessing the browser from the same machine where `matlab-proxy` is running?

Yes, same machine.

3. Could you share the output from running the [troubleshooting script](https://github.com/mathworks/matlab-proxy/blob/main/troubleshooting/troubleshooting.py)?

-------------------------------
MATLAB
-------------------------------
matlab - C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2022b\bin\matlab.EXE ok

-------------------------------
matlab-proxy-app
-------------------------------
matlab-proxy-app - C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Scripts\matlab-proxy-app.EXE ok

-------------------------------
Python and pip executables
-------------------------------
python - C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\python.EXE ok
Python 3.13.2
pip - C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Scripts\pip.EXE ok
pip 25.2 from C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages-pip (python 3.13)
python3 - C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\python3.EXE ok
Python was not found; run without arguments to install from the Microsoft Store, or disable this shortcut from Settings > Manage App Execution Aliases.

-------------------------------
OS information
-------------------------------
Windows
11
Windows-11-10.0.22631-SP0
uname_result(system='Windows', node=<PC_name>, release='11', version='10.0.22631', machine='AMD64')

-------------------------------
Conda information
-------------------------------
conda - None

-------------------------------
Installed packages
-------------------------------
jupyter_client	8.6.3
jupyter_core	5.7.2
matlab-proxy	0.26.0

-------------------------------
Environment variables
-------------------------------
MWI_APP_HOST=<PC_domain>
MWI_APP_PORT=63180
MWI_AUTH_TOKEN=<token>
MWI_ENABLE_WEB_LOGGING=True
MWI_MATLAB_STARTUP_SCRIPT=cd('C:\matlab\');

4. Please try enabling DEBUG level logs and share the output with us. To do this, set the following environment variables before starting `matlab-proxy-app`:
   
   * `MWI_LOG_LEVEL="DEBUG"`
   * `MWI_LOG_FILE="<absolute_path_to_log_file>"`

It is not feasible to transfer and clean the entire log file, as this is a corporate machine. I can provide the relevant section when the download request is made, but let me know if you want to see specific lines.

MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - <======== Authenticate request: <Request GET /downloadC:\matlab\test.m >
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Authentication is Enabled.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Checking for token in session cookie...
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Got session cookie.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Found token in session cookie, validating...
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Token validation successful.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Authentication successful. ========>
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - full_path_to_file: .\C:\matlab\test.m
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - sending request: method=POST, url=http://<domain>:63180/messageservice/json/secure, data={"uuid": "<ID>", "messages": {"FEval": [{"function": "matlab.ui.internal.URLUtils.getURLToUserFile", "arguments": [".\\C:\\matlab\\test.m", 1.0], "nargout": 1, "priority": 1, "dequeMode": "ppe", "uuid"L "<ID>"}]}, "computeToken": {"computeSessionId": "unused"}}, headers={'mwi-auth-token': '<token>'},
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - <======== Authenticate request: <Request POST /messageservice/json/secure >
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Authentication is Enabled.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Checking for token in session cookie...
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Got session cookie.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Token not found in session cookie.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Checking for token in request headers...
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Token found in headers: mwi-auth-token
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Token validation successful.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Created session and saved cookie.
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - Authentication successful. ========>
0x00005efc connector::http::server I HTTP Request: post http://<domain>:63180/ /messageservice/json/secure? [274 bytes]
0x00005efc connector::http::server I HTTP Response: post http://<domain>:63180/ /messageservice/json/secure? [208 bytes] [200]
MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - response from endpointhttp://<domain>:63180/messageservice/json/secure and resp=<ClientResponse(http://<domain>:63180/messageservice/json/secure) [200 OK]> <CIMultuDictProxy('Date': <date>, 'Connection': 'Keep-Alive', 'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8', 'Content-Length': '208', 'Set-Cookie': 'JSESSIONID=<ID>; Path=/; HttpOnly', 'Set-Cookie': 'snc=<xxxxxx>; Path=/; HttpOnly', 'Set-Cookie': 'matlab-proxy-session-<ID>'="<xxxxxx>"; Path=/; HttpOnly', 'Server': 'Python/3.13 aiohttp/3.10.5')>

MATLABProxyApp - DEBUG - EC Response URL: {'messages': {'FEvalResponse': [{'isError': True, 'messageFaults': [{'faultCode': 'MATLAB.CodeError', 'faultConditions': [], 'message': 'Directory does not exist.'}], 'results': [], 'uuid': <ID>}]}, 'uuid': <ID>}
0x0000304c connector:http::server I HTTP Request: get http://<domain>:63180/ /downloadC:\matlab\test.m? [0 bytes]
0x0000304c connector:http::server I HTTP Response: get http://<domain>:63180/ /downloadC:\matlab\test.m? [9 bytes] [403]

5. You mentioned this might be a "weird issue with your setup." Is there anything unique or unusual about your configuration that you can share to help us reproduce the issue on our end?

Nothing that I can point to, but I have had weird problems that nobody else has reported. #48 #52

6. Does this issue only occur when working with the C:\ drive (your operating system drive), or does it also affect other disk drives?

It happens for files on other drives too.

[rashedmyt]

Thank you for providing the requested information.

Based on the debug logs, I noticed that the full file path includes additional .\ characters. When these are passed to MATLAB, they appear to cause the issue you’re experiencing.

Upon further investigation, I found that this behavior is related to Python 3.13. The API used by the matlab-proxy package to extract the file path from the URL has started returning these extra characters in Python 3.13.

As noted in the Requirements section of the README, Python 3.12 and 3.13 are not yet officially supported:

Python versions: 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.10 | 3.11

We are actively working on adding support for these newer Python versions. In the meantime, we recommend using Python 3.11 for the best compatibility.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

[wynnsyt]

Thanks for your very prompt response!

After trying Python 3.11, this seems to be working.