PM23578: ERROR 500 RESPONSE FROM PROXY SERVER WHEN PROCESSING A 304 WCM R ESPONSE

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• A 500 error occurs because the If-None-Match request header
  value is not being sent with double quotes by the client browser
  as per the RFC 2616 specification.
  
  A caching Proxy expects the ETag and If-None-Match header values
  to be in double quotes. Because the ETag header is being set by
  WCM without double quotes, the proxy server doesn't process the
  header internally (as it is considered invalid) and just
  forwards it to the client. In the next request the client sends
  the same value as the If-None-Match header back to the proxy
  which again considers it invalid and simply forwards the request
  to the server without treating it as a conditional
  header.
  
  The proxy now expects a 200 response for the request (because
  there were no conditional headers) but WCM processes the
  If-None-Match header without double quotes normally and sends a
  304 response. This causes the proxy to treat the response as
  invalid and return a 500 error to the client browser.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• WCM now sets the ETag header with double quotes as per the RFC
  2616 specification.
  

Problem conclusion

• This APAR addresses the issue by ensuring valid ETag and
  If-None-Match header values. You may need to clear the client
  browser cache (to remove cached If-None-Match values) for this
  fix to take effect.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  LOTUS WEB CONT

• Fixed component ID

  5724I2900

Applicable component levels

• R615 PSY

     UP