Webplayer issue

[katastarcova]

Hi,
I am not able to use spotify player on the website. There is probably issue with my username, because it contains special characters (káťa.starcová).

Console error (Line 4.  Column 19915):
spotify.sdk.5.9.2-enc-feea156.min.js:4 Uncaught InvalidCharacterError: Failed to execute 'btoa' on 'Window': The string to be encoded contains characters outside of the Latin1 range.

Leads to code (Line 4.  Column 19915): 
Spotify.Utils.Base64.encode(_username)

Thank You wery much for fixing this issue, have a great day.

K.

[osornios · Accepted solution]

Hey @katastarcova,

My suggestion would be for you to create a new account with a different email address (Tip: don't use the one you use for Facebook). That will give you a different Spotify username of your choice, so you could create one without special characters.

Once you've made it, fill out the contact form and someone from Spotify will help you migrate your Premium privileges (if you have them), library, playlists, friends, etc. to this new account.

[Adspacess]

What you propose is no solution. It is an awkward workaround at best.

This issue is a clear indicator of low code quality and a distinct lack of testing. I find it baffeling that this clear cut bug does not seem to have been escalated yet.

The solution to this issue is literally the first result when googling "spotify Uncaught DOMException: Failed to execute 'btoa' on 'Window': The string to be encoded contains characters outside of the Latin1 range." Surely it would not be too much work to add a few function calls and gain UTF8 support (which the desktop players always have had)?

Yes, I concede that this issue seems to be isolated to users of the Chrome browser. But I think that you should not require that portion of your userbase to switch webbrowsers without telling them which browsers are officially supported.

I would hope that a more suitable approach to software developement is taken when (if ever) the webplayer is reimplemented in HTML5. But the forum posts of developers here indicate that they do not posess the necessary knowledge to do so. I guess the problem will sort itself out in 2017 when Google shuts down Flash support in Chrome.