badges that were created using badger.openbadges.org instance generate error when sending to backpack

[threeqube]

This bug was reported by the folks at DigitalMe.

[stenington]

Example assertion: http://badger.openbadges.org/badge/assertion/39841d20863cda3d5c2e8fab6f0b0c1d93b79373

[stenington]

The backpack's unhappy while the validator says it's fine because they're using different versions of the underlying validation library. :astonished:

The backpack is blowing up saying 'recipient.salt': { [Error: must be a string] message: 'must be a string', code: undefined } which is technically incorrect. The spec says the salt is optional.

[stenington]

I think the work to be done is:

• [x] update the validator to make salts optional, if that's not how it is: mozilla/openbadges-validator#24
• [x] update the version of the validator used in the validator service: mozilla/openbadges-validator-service#24
• [x] update the version of the validator used in the backpack to include the fix above: PR mozilla/openbadges#974
• [x] move the validator-service and backpack to staging and production

[stenington]

@threeqube As a first step at improving error messaging, what's a better generic error message than "undefined"?

[threeqube]

@stenington well why does this error occur?

[stenington]

@threeqube Well, I was thinking of putting in a better generic message, not a specific message for this actual problem. I think it'll get covered in one of the many open tickets to make our error messaging better though.

[threeqube]

How about, "We have encountered an issue. Please try again later."?

[iamjessklein]

+1 @stenington - I wrote a bunch of tickets on error messages. I do like that suggestion in the interim @threeqube