.fpl Files Sent as Text Instead of Downloadable Attachments in Signal (iPadOS)

[tomduese]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

When sending .fpl files (ForeFlight Plan files, a file with a XML format) from one iPhone to another iPad via Signal, the files now appear in the chat with their content displayed, rather than as a downloadable file. Previously, these files could be sent and received in Signal as downloadable attachments. After a recent update, the content of the .fpl files is shown as text in the chat, which alters their functionality and requires a workaround (compressing and decompressing the files) to make them usable again in ForeFlight. Sending the same files through Airdrop for example, does not alter their functionality.

Steps to reproduce

• Create a .fpl file on iPhone 1 using ForeFlight.
• Send the .fpl file via Signal to iPad 2.
• On iPad 2, open Signal to view the sent file.

Actual result: The .fpl file's content is displayed in the chat rather than appearing as a downloadable file.

Expected result: The .fpl file should appear as a downloadable file in the chat, as it did in previous Signal versions, so it can be directly downloaded and opened in ForeFlight without requiring additional steps. In the images below you can see the old behaviour when clicking on the file from the chat. Only the filename is displayed with the extension and when clicking to the top to do sth with that file, the dropdown shows the ForeFlight app to open it with it. This has changed as you can see in the 2nd image, where the content of that file is displayed and the app ForeFlight does not longer appear in the dropdown.

Screenshots

Device info

Device: iPhone SE 2022

iOS version: 17.6.1

Signal version (new behaviour): 7.28 (328)
Signal version (with old behaviour): 7.22 (246)

[tomduese]

This issue still exists even in iOS 18.0.1 and we are having a stupid workaround, but honestly, will you ever have a look in this? it is really annoying!

[MarlowBrown]

Hey there Tom!

I'm one of the contributors to Signal iOS and I'd love to take a look at this bug and see what I can do. Can you share some sample fpl files here?

[tomduese]

Hi Marlow, thanks for your message, I’ll provide a .fpl file in the next week, thank you for looking into it!

[tomduese]

here we go: this is a zipped version.

ForeFlight 2.zip

[MarlowBrown]

Thanks for sending those files in! I'll start getting to work on figuring out the current functionality!

[MarlowBrown]

Hey @tomduese

I have some good news! I've restored the functionality that you've previously used to send .fpl files!

FPLSignal.mov

The PR for it is right here :)

[gagelarsen]

Here is some files from BG stats for testing from issue #5938 !! Thanks for looking into this! I had to add a .txt extension to get it to upload. Just remove that extension

BrassBirmingham-play-250309193107.bgsplay.txt

[gagelarsen]

Just checking to see if there is any progress on this?

[MarlowBrown]

Hey @gagelarsen. Unfortunately, the PR for this is still in review purgatory. I'm just happy that Sasha (one of the Signal devs) hops on when he gets the time to finish some things.