Bug#1002595: debbugs: get_bug_log can incorrectly return an e-mail body with xsi:type="xsd:long"

On Mon, 27 Dec 2021 21:41:04 +0100, Nis Martensen wrote:
> Debbugs already disables some of the possible types around here:
> https://salsa.debian.org/debbugs-team/debbugs/-/blob/master/cgi/soap.cgi#L49
> I suspect it should not disable the auto-detection completely because at
> least some of the remaining types are actually needed. This means there
> will always remain corner cases where it guesses wrong.

it seems like the use of auto-detection was more for quick prototyping
convenience than it should be relied upon long term.  the schema should
be a fixed thing at this point: every response down to the field and its
type should be written in stone.

> Being prepared for this on the client side is a good idea.
> Python-debianbts solves the problem in get_bug_log() by (mostly)
> ignoring the xsi:type for message bodies and always converting them to
> string.

making every client copy & paste the same set of workarounds for bad server
responses sounds like the wrong trade-off.  at that point, why bother sending
type information in the responses if clients can't rely on them ?

i get that the server is misbehaving now so clients don't have much choice but
to workaround them, but the server response should be fixed nevertheless.