fix: Add HTTP status checking to fetch calls in JavaScript files

[1456055067]

Summary

Users previously faced cryptic errors, such as unexpected JSON parse failures, when a server request failed. Now, response.ok checks have been added to all fetch calls before processing responses. This prevents confusing errors when the server returns non-200 HTTP status codes.

Changes

Modified four fetch handlers to check HTTP status before processing responses:

• main.js: Added status checks to render() (line 100) and validate() (line 167) functions
• iddiff.js: Added status check to compare() function (line 227)
• rfcdiff.js: Added status check to compare() function (line 214)

Problems Fixed

Issue #603 - JSON parse errors on conversion failure

Before: When the XML2RFC conversion failed, the JavaScript tried to parse error responses as JSON, causing:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

Users had to browse to their file again to recover it.

After: When response.ok is false, a clear error is thrown and caught:

There was an issue processing your request. (HTTP Status: 500)

Issue #506 - TypeError on large file uploads

Before: When users uploaded files larger than 5MB, the server returned an HTTP 413 (Payload Too Large) error. The code tried to extract a <table> element from the error response, causing:

TypeError: Node.appendChild: Argument 1 is not an object

After: The HTTP 413 status is detected, and a clear error message is shown to the user.

Implementation

All changes follow the same pattern already successfully implemented in abnf.js (commit 5374514, PR #573):

fetch(request)
    .then(function(response) {
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`There was an issue processing your request. (HTTP Status: ${response.status})`);
    }
    return response.json(); // or response.blob()
  })

Testing

• Verified that all fetch handlers now have consistent error checks
• Changes match the working pattern in abnf.js
• Error messages include HTTP status codes for debugging.

Related Issues

• Fixes Author's Tool website requires re-browse on xml2rfc conversion failure #603
• Fixes TypeError: Node.appendChild: Argument 1 is not an object. #506

[1456055067]

Looking at test failures now

[kesara]

Looking at test failures now

Thanks, I think those could be due to updates on html-validate. Tests doesn't pin a certain version, uses the latest available.

[1456055067]

Fixed the HTML validation due to aria-labelledby failure. ended up having to switch the div to a section. div doesn't support aria-labelledby.

[kesara]

Because API returns non-200 HTTP status codes with error information, the proposed changes will stop displaying those errors.

[kesara]

LGTM! Thanks for your contributions.