Resolve relative srcset URLs

[twm]

I stumbled across a feed with an <img src="..." srcset="..."> where the src was busted, but the srcset is good, so here we are: this teaches the relative URL resolver how to resolve relative URLs within the srcset attribute.

I also added srcset to the list of allowed attributes in the sanitizer so that the test would work. There's a caveat to this: the width descriptor form of srcset requires the sizes attribute too, but that attribute isn't allowed by the sanitizer (and it contains CSS media queries, so that'd be nontrivial to add). A browser will ignore the srcset in that case, so I think the end result is status quo.

I wasn't sure how many tests to add, or exactly where to put them. Please advise!

[kurtmckee]

Hi Tom!

I don't want to add to feedparser's custom HTML sanitizing code, as feedparser needs to contract its responsibilities down to just parsing feeds to become maintainable again. Instead, I'd prefer to see a PR that eliminates feedparser's HTML sanitizing code and replaces it with a Python library that is dedicated to that purpose. You may remember #257, where I thought that bleach might be a package that could achieve this goal.

Could html-sanitizer be an alternative?

[twm]

I am skeptical of html-sanitizer — it depends on lxml which is ultimately backed by libxml2 and libxslt. Those projects are in a rough spot right now so I'd hesitate to move in that direction. (Also, it depends on beautifulsoup4. Perhaps that library has improved on its molasses-slow predecessors but I'd benchmark before adopting it.)

On my own project I'm still using html5lib + lxml for sanitization and manipulation, but I've had my eye out for alternatives. I haven't seen anything else as flexible yet.

For sanitization alone, I've used nh3 in the past. This is backed by the Rust ammonia and html5ever libraries, so less likely to blow your hand off than C libxml2. Last I checked (admittedly, a few years ago) html5ever also passed more of the html5lib-tests than html5lib itself, so more compliant. Caveat: html5ever is part of the Servo project, which while revived in 2023 has had fallow periods. It still seems safer for feedparser's users than lxml. I think that the main risk in adopting nh3 is that it stops producing wheels for new Pythons in the future.

For this PR, I didn't want to touch sanitization at all (again, I don't use it!) but it is applied by default to the test vectors, so it would drop the srcset attribute that I need to assert on. I could drop this test vector and write an equivalent test that only applies to the URL resolution logic. Does that sound reasonable to you?

[EmilStenstrom]

@kurtmckee I wonder if JustHTML could be a viable alternative? As the maintainer I would be happy to work with you and improve the API if there's something missing.

[twm]

I'd be happy to help with any HTML parser transition, but I don't understand how to address the objection to the incidental sanitizer change here. At its core, this PR is about URL resolution. Is that in-scope for the feedparser project going forward?