Desktop: Confusing user agent during desktop app authentication flow

[jancborchardt]

When you log in to your server, you are at some point faced with this page:

That’s downright scary. ;) Instead the regular client should simply say "Nextcloud desktop client" and the nightly one "Nextcloud desktop client nightly".

cc @rullzer @er-vin @misch7 as I’m not sure if this is so easy, or requires server adjustments as well.

[misch7]

I think this should be addressed on the server side since it's basically the user-agent string sent by the client. If we modify it on the client side, we're going to lose this info for the server (and the update server etc.).

But yeah, it might look scary for the average user indeed ;)

[jancborchardt]

@misch7 right, thanks! Then I’ll transfer it to the server repository. :)

[jancborchardt]

When logging in with the Android app, it already looks nice like Phone model (Android), so possibly we can use the same mechanism there. cc @rullzer @tobiasKaminsky

[tobiasKaminsky]

The "trick" is to use a custom user agent only for login flow, in desktop case it could be something like "PC-Name ($platform)", which should be specific enough to find it in the list, if needed.

[er-vin]

Thanks for the trick, feels almost like a one liner :-)

[misch7]

The "trick" is to use a custom user agent only for login flow, in desktop case it could be something like "PC-Name ($platform)", which should be specific enough to find it in the list, if needed.

Hmm, feels like kind of a "cheat" in regard what the server admins may like to see in their auth logs.
But I guess it might be okay since they still can see the related logging around the auth requests.

[jancborchardt]

in regard what the server admins may like to see in their auth logs

This is mostly about what end users see, and that should be clean and understandable. :) If we need additional stuff for server logs that could be separate and not visible in the interface?

[misch7]

in regard what the server admins may like to see in their auth logs

This is mostly about what end users see, and that should be clean and understandable. :)

I know ;-)

If we need additional stuff for server logs that could be separate and not visible in the interface?

When we modify the user-agent then this is what the server gets (logs) and is visible for the user.

[jancborchardt]

Since the Android app already does this for some time: Did we have any server admin reports about this being off? Because if not we can just go for the same approach anyway?