[Boost] API errors on Private WoA sites

[thingalon]

When a WoA site is marked as "Private", some Boost features no longer work. This includes Cloud CSS and Speed Scores, for different reasons:

• Speed Scores fail to generate, as our API call dies in the guts of wpcom with the error User cannot access this private blog. p1706715644352229/1706626329.415869-slack-C01U2KGS2PQ
• Cloud CSS cannot generate, as Boost's back-end service cannot access a private site.
• Even if wpcom didn't reject our Speed Score request, the UI couldn't generate a speed score anyway for a private site.
• Presumably the Image Size Analyzer would also fail.

This is a bit messy. It's reasonable that some features do not work on a site that is not publicly accessible. I think we should make Private sites on WoA behave like offline sites, so that users get a clean, understandable experience.

[vinnykaur]

Hi @thingalon, I had a user with a private atomic site. They wanted to add users as viewers. When viewers accept invites, they see the User cannot access this private blog. But soon after that, they are added as viewers to the site. I could replicate it on the user's site and my test site.

This is confusing for the users. They want to add 100+ viewers and it won't be a good experience for them if this error appears. I wanted to mention it here in case it helps with the case.

More context in 7782603-zd-a8c

[github-actions[bot]]

Support References

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• [ ] 7782603-zen

[masperber]

Here are the findings of my testing:

• I created the user in Users > All Users > Add New User
• My test email received the invite email
• I clicked on the link to join the site
• Upon clicking the join button, I got the error message "User cannot access this private blog.".
• When I visited the site, I got a message that it is a private site
• However, when I clicked on Log in, then I could see the site.

So, there is an error message being reported even though the user is able to register.

[thingalon]

@vinnykaur, @masperber - this ticket is on the Jetpack board and is focused on API errors Jetpack Boost users are seeing when interacting with the plugin on a private WoA site. It doesn't really relate to core WordPress flows like user management in WoA.

We're not the right place to be tracking this issue, and I'm afraid it will get lost here and won't get the attention it deserves. It needs to be reported in a WPCOM/WoA issue tracker.

[vinnykaur]

Thanks! There is another bug report for the WoA private sites here: https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/issues/66547

Thanks for pointing us in the right direction.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been marked as stale. This happened because:

• It has been inactive for the past 6 months.
• It hasn’t been labeled `[Pri] BLOCKER`, `[Pri] High`, `[Type] Feature Request`, `[Type] Enhancement`, `[Type] Janitorial`, `Good For Community`, `[Type] Good First Bug`, etc.

No further action is needed. But it's worth checking if this ticket has clear reproduction steps and it is still reproducible. Feel free to close this issue if you think it's not valid anymore — if you do, please add a brief explanation.

[dilirity]

AFAIK we haven't done anything in this direction, so this is still relevant.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been marked as stale. This happened because:

• It has been inactive for the past 6 months.
• It hasn’t been labeled `[Pri] BLOCKER`, `[Pri] High`, `[Type] Feature Request`, `[Type] Enhancement`, `[Type] Janitorial`, `Good For Community`, `[Type] Good First Bug`, etc.

No further action is needed. But it's worth checking if this ticket has clear reproduction steps and it is still reproducible. Feel free to close this issue if you think it's not valid anymore — if you do, please add a brief explanation.