openfoodfacts/openfoodfacts-server

Empty search produces weird download

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#9,312 opened on Nov 13, 2023

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Description

What

When search.pl doesn't find any products, the CSV and XLSX are weird. Basically, HTTP response seems to contain some header for the resulting format, and the search result page that says "no results".

Steps to reproduce the behavior

  1. Go to https://world-de.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?action=process&tagtype_0=brands&tag_contains_0=does_not_contain&tag_0=M%C3%BCller&tagtype_1=brands&tag_contains_1=contains&tag_1=Muller&sort_by=unique_scans_n&page_size=20 to search for products that have the brand "Muller" but not the brand "M眉ller"
  2. Notice that there are no results aside: Notice that pagination is presented, and one counter says there are 44 products, while another one shows 0 products.
  3. Download the search results in XLSX and CSV format
  4. Open the downloaded files in a text editor.

Expected behavior

An empty CSV/XLSX file should be provided for download.

Why

The downloads are provided with content-disposition: attachment;filename=openfoodfacts_export.xlsx or content-disposition: attachment;filename=openfoodfacts_export.csv headers. Users trying to open the files could get confused.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
backenddata
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Perlweb development basics
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60
Research direction
Examine the search.pl script, focusing on the code that generates CSV and XLSX responses. Look for how the query result is checked before sending the file headers. Consider adding a conditional to output an empty spreadsheet or relevant headers when the search result set is empty. The issue also mentions a pagination inconsistency that may be related.
Empty search produces weird download 路 openfoodfacts/openfoodfacts-server#9312 | Good First Issue