Rick's b.log - entry 2025/10/13

Tea no longer works

TEA NO LONGER WORKS.

Freesat have completely changed how their EPG works. I have just sat down with Firefox and the uBlock Origin logger to trace what was actually happening.

However there's a much bigger problem here, in that the Acorn HTTP fetcher tries to be "clever" and does stuff behind your back.

I say this because entering https://www.freesat.co.uk/api/channel-list?nid=28832 into NetSurf will return the JSON data for the available channels (and a lot more data than previously), whereas feeding it to the Acorn URL fetcher simply results in a 502 Bad Gateway error. It's not my code, because plugging the info into the demonstration HTTPClient program returns exactly the same thing.

Which means, if I'm going to get Tea running again, I may well need to try handling the SSL stuff myself. And there are many differences to how the site works now compared to how it did, so I am not sure if I'm going to have the time and/or concentration to deal with this, because the URL fetcher can't do it's goddamn job without buggering around in the background doing...whatever...

...but this isn't the first time I've been bitten by URLFetcher's eccentricities. It's why Manga no longer works. I got a list of URLs, just like I did this evening for Freesat, and they work in the browser but they do not work with the URL fetcher.

So - in short, Tea doesn't work any more.

I know what needs to be done regarding getting Tea to interact with the server (it's a lot of changes). I do not know what needs to be done regarding getting Tea to manage to successfully talk to the server, but it's clear that the URL fetcher can no longer be used. And that, however, is a massive problem - as it would mean basically trying to write a fetcher without the bullshit and layering SSL on top. JFC.

...I managed to get hold of the Freesat app from an app cache (APKPure), as it isn't normally available in my location. It is nowhere near as nice to use as Tea, but I guess it'll have to do until/if/when I do something about Tea.

So, in short, I'm aware there's a problem. I know how to use the new API. RISC OS doesn't want to play along. I'm annoyed by that (and have wasted an evening on this). And that's where we are right now.

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Zerosquare, 13th October 2025, 20:43

What?! Go to the ER immediately, something's seriously wrong!    ...    Oh, you meant the app, not the beverage. Carry on then.

Rick, 13th October 2025, 21:30

After a lot of gnashing of teeth, and a few reboots because my installed software was old and RISC OS really cannot cope with things barfing whilst in a TaskWindow...    ...I discovered that the following will download files AND alleviates the need for sorting out my own fetcher buffering: *wget -q --no-check-certificate -O $.__temp https://www.freesat.co.uk/api/channel-list?nid=28832    So, maybe the way forward is to give up on the URL fetcher as a lost cause and just shell out to wget when I want something fetched?  wget is, however, GPL so... can I supply it with Tea? I *think* I can as it isn't actually linked in any way with the main program.    Anyway, maybe a way forward here.

Rick, 13th October 2025, 21:34

Zerosquare: 😂 The only way I'd be giving up on 🫖 (the beverage, not the app) is through cessation of existence.

Rick, 14th October 2025, 05:48

My brain was churning while I was asleep, and one of the things that popped out of it was that it is specifically recieving a "Bad Gateway" error on an HTTPS connection. Could it be that AcornHTTP doesn't implement SNI correctly?

Rick, 14th October 2025, 07:40

I made a bug report 😉

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