api: Don't allow connecting to servers <2.0 #5633

chrisbobbe · 2023-01-03T19:27:31Z

With an error alert that appears at the following points:

On submitting RealmInputScreen (titled "Welcome"):

On selecting a logged-out account in AccountPickScreen (titled "Pick account"):

When we get a /register response from the active account's server. (The first screenshot is what happens on launch; the second is what happens when you select a logged-in account in AccountPickScreen.)

The alert says:

Title:

Could not connect

Body:

{realm} is running Zulip Server {version}, which is unsupported.

The "Learn more" button goes to https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/overview/release-lifecycle.html#compatibility-and-upgrading but later we'll want to change that to a new page; that's zulip/zulip#23842.

cc @alya for the UX change.

Fixes: #5102

gnprice

Thanks @chrisbobbe for buliding this!

The code generally looks good; one comment below.

In the UX: I feel like it'd be helpful, when saying that the given version is unsupported, to say what the minimum version is. So e.g., added to the end of the text, "The minimum version is Zulip Server 2.0."

In particular mentioning a "minimum" version, and having it be a bigger number than the rejected version, would help clarify that the server's version is "unsupported" because it's too old, and that what's needed is a more up-to-date version.

gnprice · 2023-01-12T23:02:14Z

src/api/apiErrors.js

+//   https://github.com/zulip/zulip-mobile/issues/5102#issuecomment-1233446360
+// In steady state, this should lag a bit behind the threshold version for
+// ServerCompatBanner, to give users time to see and act on the banner.
+export const kThresholdZulipVersion: ZulipVersion = new ZulipVersion('2.0');


This name feels pretty non-specific to me — it says this is a version where we make some kind of distinction between above and below it, but it doesn't really say what that distinction is.

Tempted to say kMinZulipVersion, but I guess there's already a kMinSupportedVersion with a different meaning, so it's better to draw more specifically the contrast from that one.

How about kMinAllowedServerVersion?

chrisbobbe · 2023-01-13T00:37:06Z

Thanks for the review! Revision pushed.

alya · 2023-01-19T06:31:53Z

static/translations/messages_en.json

@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@
  "Could not connect": "Could not connect",
  "The server at {realm} said:\n\n{message}": "The server at {realm} said:\n\n{message}",
  "Could not connect to {realm}. Please check your network connection and try again.": "Could not connect to {realm}. Please check your network connection and try again.",
+  "{realm} is running Zulip Server {version}, which is unsupported. The minimum version is Zulip Server {minSupportedVersion}.": "{realm} is running Zulip Server {version}, which is unsupported. The minimum version is Zulip Server {minSupportedVersion}.",
  "The server at {realm} does not seem to be a Zulip server.": "The server at {realm} does not seem to be a Zulip server.",


Maybe "the minimum supported version"?

Yeah, I agree that seems clearer.

chrisbobbe · 2023-01-19T07:33:11Z

Thanks for the review! Revision pushed.

With an error alert that appears at the following points: - On submitting `RealmInputScreen` (titled "Welcome") - On selecting a logged-out account in `AccountPickScreen` (titled "Pick account") - When we connect to the active account's server (get a `/register` response; the "Connecting" banner disappears) and we learn its current server version Fixes: zulip#5102

gnprice · 2023-01-25T00:44:01Z

Thanks for the revision! Looks good; merging.

…ion numbers. Previously I've wanted to have this page spell out the concrete version number that our clients support, rather than the policy we use for determining that version number, because that's the sort of question that I feel like as a user I'd want a straight answer to and would be annoyed if I couldn't get one. But as the text stands, it's come to look more like it's the policy (something that's heavyweight to change) than like the value that the policy currently happens to work out to. Also, because this page is kind of chaotically organized (and fixing that is a bigger yak than I want to shave right now), it repeats the 18-month rule in three separate places and the current value (version 4.0) is in a fourth separate place, so it looks internally inconsistent. Let's therefore take a different tack: like in those other three spots on this page, state just the policy instead of the value it currently works out to; but also add a link to help the reader pin down for themselves what value that does work out to. This also means we no longer need to update this page as old releases age and that value advances. Also fix a typo, and cut the reference to working degraded on older releases. Starting earlier this year we finally started hard-refusing such connections: zulip/zulip-mobile#5102 zulip/zulip-mobile#5633 (which was because there were some swathes of compatibility code that we could only cut if we completely broke the handling of ancient servers, and so we preferred to have the app communicate that break clearly up front.)

…ion numbers. Previously I've wanted to have this page spell out the concrete version number that our clients support, rather than the policy we use for determining that version number, because that's the sort of question that I feel like as a user I'd want a straight answer to and would be annoyed if I couldn't get one. But as the text stands, it's come to look more like it's the policy (something that's heavyweight to change) than like the value that the policy currently happens to work out to. Also, because this page is kind of chaotically organized (and fixing that is a bigger yak than I want to shave right now), it repeats the 18-month rule in three separate places and the current value (version 4.0) is in a fourth separate place, so it looks internally inconsistent. Let's therefore take a different tack: like in those other three spots on this page, state just the policy instead of the value it currently works out to; but also add a link to help the reader pin down for themselves what value that does work out to. This also means we no longer need to update this page as old releases age and that value advances. Also fix a typo, and cut the reference to working degraded on older releases. Starting earlier this year we finally started hard-refusing such connections: zulip/zulip-mobile#5102 zulip/zulip-mobile#5633 (which was because there were some swathes of compatibility code that we could only cut if we completely broke the handling of ancient servers, and so we preferred to have the app communicate that break clearly up front.) (cherry picked from commit bb6fe03)

chrisbobbe requested review from gnprice and alya January 3, 2023 19:27

chrisbobbe mentioned this pull request Jan 3, 2023

Use Identity instead of index for ACCOUNT_SWITCH and ACCOUNT_REMOVE #5634

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gnprice reviewed Jan 12, 2023

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chrisbobbe force-pushed the pr-disallow-servers-pre-2-0 branch from 53f2df2 to 5cd4c16 Compare January 13, 2023 00:37

alya reviewed Jan 19, 2023

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chrisbobbe force-pushed the pr-disallow-servers-pre-2-0 branch from 5cd4c16 to 492a53b Compare January 19, 2023 07:32

chrisbobbe force-pushed the pr-disallow-servers-pre-2-0 branch from 492a53b to b1a25a5 Compare January 19, 2023 07:33

chrisbobbe added 2 commits January 24, 2023 16:43

ServerCompatBanner [nfc]: Add TODO to link to more user-friendly doc

04ef0f3

gnprice force-pushed the pr-disallow-servers-pre-2-0 branch from b1a25a5 to 3b811d6 Compare January 25, 2023 00:43

gnprice merged commit 3b811d6 into zulip:main Jan 25, 2023

chrisbobbe deleted the pr-disallow-servers-pre-2-0 branch January 25, 2023 00:44

gnprice mentioned this pull request Mar 31, 2023

[wip] Cut various support for ancient servers #5708

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This was referenced Aug 14, 2023

Disallow connecting to unsupported ancient servers zulip/zulip-flutter#267

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docs: Consistently say "18 months" on compatibility, no specific version numbers. zulip/zulip#26522

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gnprice mentioned this pull request Apr 2, 2025

Show warning banner on deprecated old servers zulip/zulip-flutter#1457

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api: Don't allow connecting to servers <2.0 #5633

api: Don't allow connecting to servers <2.0 #5633

chrisbobbe commented Jan 3, 2023 •

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api: Don't allow connecting to servers <2.0 #5633

api: Don't allow connecting to servers <2.0 #5633

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