From 1381563988c6dc7a2b8801b736b1f0c663970da8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Patrick Cloke Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 15:01:58 -0400 Subject: Inline URL preview documentation. (#13261) Inline URL preview documentation near the implementation. --- synapse/rest/media/v1/preview_url_resource.py | 62 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 58 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) (limited to 'synapse') diff --git a/synapse/rest/media/v1/preview_url_resource.py b/synapse/rest/media/v1/preview_url_resource.py index 54a849eac9..b36c98a08e 100644 --- a/synapse/rest/media/v1/preview_url_resource.py +++ b/synapse/rest/media/v1/preview_url_resource.py @@ -109,10 +109,64 @@ class MediaInfo: class PreviewUrlResource(DirectServeJsonResource): """ - Generating URL previews is a complicated task which many potential pitfalls. - - See docs/development/url_previews.md for discussion of the design and - algorithm followed in this module. + The `GET /_matrix/media/r0/preview_url` endpoint provides a generic preview API + for URLs which outputs Open Graph (https://ogp.me/) responses (with some Matrix + specific additions). + + This does have trade-offs compared to other designs: + + * Pros: + * Simple and flexible; can be used by any clients at any point + * Cons: + * If each homeserver provides one of these independently, all the homeservers in a + room may needlessly DoS the target URI + * The URL metadata must be stored somewhere, rather than just using Matrix + itself to store the media. + * Matrix cannot be used to distribute the metadata between homeservers. + + When Synapse is asked to preview a URL it does the following: + + 1. Checks against a URL blacklist (defined as `url_preview_url_blacklist` in the + config). + 2. Checks the URL against an in-memory cache and returns the result if it exists. (This + is also used to de-duplicate processing of multiple in-flight requests at once.) + 3. Kicks off a background process to generate a preview: + 1. Checks URL and timestamp against the database cache and returns the result if it + has not expired and was successful (a 2xx return code). + 2. Checks if the URL matches an oEmbed (https://oembed.com/) pattern. If it + does, update the URL to download. + 3. Downloads the URL and stores it into a file via the media storage provider + and saves the local media metadata. + 4. If the media is an image: + 1. Generates thumbnails. + 2. Generates an Open Graph response based on image properties. + 5. If the media is HTML: + 1. Decodes the HTML via the stored file. + 2. Generates an Open Graph response from the HTML. + 3. If a JSON oEmbed URL was found in the HTML via autodiscovery: + 1. Downloads the URL and stores it into a file via the media storage provider + and saves the local media metadata. + 2. Convert the oEmbed response to an Open Graph response. + 3. Override any Open Graph data from the HTML with data from oEmbed. + 4. If an image exists in the Open Graph response: + 1. Downloads the URL and stores it into a file via the media storage + provider and saves the local media metadata. + 2. Generates thumbnails. + 3. Updates the Open Graph response based on image properties. + 6. If the media is JSON and an oEmbed URL was found: + 1. Convert the oEmbed response to an Open Graph response. + 2. If a thumbnail or image is in the oEmbed response: + 1. Downloads the URL and stores it into a file via the media storage + provider and saves the local media metadata. + 2. Generates thumbnails. + 3. Updates the Open Graph response based on image properties. + 7. Stores the result in the database cache. + 4. Returns the result. + + The in-memory cache expires after 1 hour. + + Expired entries in the database cache (and their associated media files) are + deleted every 10 seconds. The default expiration time is 1 hour from download. """ isLeaf = True -- cgit 1.4.1