Supported media types for incoming messages

[dominikklein]

I know that we have this list of supported media types, which are also correctly implemented: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/reference/media

When I saw it correctly the types are checked for incoming messages inside the gem here, but for me, it looks like this restriction is only for outgoing messages, because here also the API returns error messages for media types outside of this defined list.

I see that for incoming messages the payloads have all the correct data for other media types and manually I can also get the media information from the media id and download this kind of file with the given media url.

What are you thinking about this situation?

[ignacio-chiazzo]

Hi,

could you elaborate more on what incoming means here? Do you mean that to upload a media you must submit a supported type, but when querying a media you could get an unsupported type?

[dominikklein]

I mean when we receiving a new message via webhook. Then next step is to use the media-id to get the meta information of the attachment/media and then next step to download the file.
Inside the incoming media message via the webhook, we are also receiving messages which not restricted related to this media list inside the documentation.
But it's checked before the download in:

ruby_whatsapp_sdk/lib/whatsapp_sdk/api/medias.rb

Line 71 in fbe074f

def download(url:, file_path:, media_type:)

So for my understanding this defined media types in the whatsapp cloud api looks for me only for restriction in the outgoing part (upload the media).

[ignacio-chiazzo]

Interesting. I haven't seen any examples for downloading other media types. If that's possible then we'd need to remove the restriction for download.

Did you manage to reproduce it?

[dominikklein]

Yes, I tested a lot of different file types, for example this is a incoming message on the webhook with some special type:

{
    "object": "whatsapp_business_account",
    "entry": [
        {
            "id": "260895230431646",
            "changes": [
                {
                    "value": {
                        "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
                        "metadata": {
                            "display_phone_number": "???",
                            "phone_number_id": "???"
                        },
                        "contacts": [
                            {
                                "profile": {
                                    "name": "John Doe"
                                },
                                "wa_id": "???"
                            }
                        ],
                        "messages": [
                            {
                                "from": "???",
                                "id": "wamid.HBgNNDkxNTEyNTIyNDgwMRUCABIYFjNFQjAyQ0U3MEVDRjhFMzlFRDk1NzkA",
                                "timestamp": "1708678909",
                                "type": "document",
                                "document": {
                                    "filename": "Questions.drawio",
                                    "mime_type": "application/octet-stream",
                                    "sha256": "rg4rWJDoZdXDOQGw5MAmJBmpESyw9klyUyGI7LD5tdA=",
                                    "id": "727074052551625"
                                }
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    "field": "messages"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

[ignacio-chiazzo]

Ohhhh! How come was octet-stream created 🤔. That seems worth raising an issue on the Meta issues tracker.

[ignacio-chiazzo]

If this is the case, you're right we should not validate any incoming media type.

[dominikklein]

I tested also with zip or other types :-D

...
"document": {
    "caption": "123123",
    "filename": "area-code.rb",
    "mime_type": "text/x-ruby-script",
    "sha256": "/2fOXXlwTgxM2XIY/KT/nqKZm6urmJPy+p6gCRW08K4=",
    "id": "1090325068775431"
}
...

...
"document": {
    "filename": "contentful-plugin.zip",
    "mime_type": "application/zip",
    "sha256": "FxDRCHtAmCaImNDrYlIv3V7GWsc0O3iew1uSAbVQH+I=",
    "id": "724391469806431"
}
...

[ignacio-chiazzo]

and how did you send the unsupported media type? via a phone in whatsapp?

[dominikklein]

I tested with my phone (iPhone) app and also with the Mac WhatsApp client and with the web client.

[ignacio-chiazzo]

Thanks for reporting @dominikklein. We should remove the validation for now when downloading the image.

If you want to contribute, all we need to do is:

1. comment the line here .
2. Skip the tests that assert raising an error when the media is invalid.
3. Add a comment to the Supported Media File .

[dominikklein]

Yes, we will try to add a PR today :-)

[fliebe92]

#128 🎉

[ignacio-chiazzo]

Thank you both!