Contrib.social

Insufficient error handling in LiteYoutubeFormatter allows invalid video IDs to be rendered

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Created on 9 June 2025, 3 months ago

Problem/Motivation

The viewElements() method in LiteYoutubeFormatter has insufficient error handling that can lead to rendering elements with invalid or empty video IDs. The current implementation:

  1. Catches all exceptions generically but only logs and continues processing
  2. Does not validate if the extracted video_id is valid after extraction
  3. Does not handle cases where youtube_get_video_id() returns NULL or FALSE
  4. Uses generic logging that makes debugging difficult

This can result in:

  • Frontend JavaScript errors when trying to process invalid video IDs
  • Empty or broken video elements being rendered
  • Difficult troubleshooting due to vague error messages

Steps to reproduce

Method 1: Temporary code injection for testing

  1. Create a field using the lite_youtube formatter with valid YouTube URLs
  2. Temporarily modify the viewElements() method in LiteYoutubeFormatter.php by adding this test code after the video_id extraction:
    3. // TEMPORARY: Simulate corrupted video_id for testing
if ($delta == 0) { 
  $this->logger->notice('TESTING: Simulating corrupted video_id');
  $video_id = FALSE;
}
  3. Clear cache: drush cr
  4. View content with YouTube videos
  5. Observe that the first video element attempts to render with video_id = FALSE
  6. Check logs to see error handling behavior
  7. Important: Remove the test code after testing

Method 2: Database manipulation

  1. Create a field using the lite_youtube formatter with valid YouTube URLs
  2. Directly modify the database to corrupt video_id values:

    3. UPDATE {field_data_field_youtube} SET field_youtube_video_id = '' WHERE entity_id = [ID];

  3. Clear cache and view the content

Proposed resolution

Improve error handling in the viewElements() method by:

  1. Add specific validation for video_id: Check if the extracted video ID is valid before proceeding with rendering
  2. Implement proper error handling: Skip rendering for items with invalid video IDs
  3. Improve logging specificity: Include more contextual information like item delta and input values
  4. Prevent invalid elements: Only create render elements when video_id is confirmed valid

The solution ensures that only valid YouTube video elements are rendered while providing better debugging information for administrators.

Remaining tasks

  • Update viewElements() method with improved error handling
  • Add video ID validation logic
  • Enhance logging with contextual information
  • Test with various invalid input scenarios

User interface changes

No direct UI changes.

API changes

No API changes. The method signature and public interface remain the same.

Data model changes

No data model changes required.

🐛 Bug report
Status

Active

Version

1.0

Component

Code

Created by

🇺🇾Uruguay apereira23

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