RSS portlet fails on some apparently valid feeds

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 6.2.10 EE GA1, 6.2.X EE, 7.0.0 DXP SP2, Master
• Fix Version/s: 7.0.0 DXP FP11, 7.0.0 DXP SP2, 7.0.3 CE GA4, 7.1.X, Master
• Component/s: Content Display Widgets > RSS Publisher widget, ~[Archived] WCM > Publication
• Labels:
  • ee-ts
  • liferay-digital-enterprise-70-sp2
  • liferay-fixpack-de-11-7010
• Branch Version/s:
  7.0.x
• Backported to Branch:
  Committed
• Story Points: 1
• Fix Priority: 3
• Git Pull Request: https://github.com/brianchandotcom/liferay-portal/pull/46044

Reproduction steps:

1.) Use a vanilla Sp15. Start the portal and create a site and a page.
2.) Drop an RSS portlet on the page.

Configure these two feeds :
http://www.lemonde.fr/rss/une.xml
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/feed

Result: The first one works perfectly (as well as most feeds I have used until now), but the second one fails with
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/feed cannot be found.

Some websites expect a user-agent string in the request, otherwise they won't serve the RSS feed and return a 403 error instead.

Remark: In this case, the user-agent is included in the request but the failing URL does not accept the version (IE6). You can reproduce it with a dev tool (e.g. User Agent Switcher for Chrome) by switching to IE6. Newer user-agents work.