Fixed #36447 -- Selected preferred media type based on quality.

RealOrangeOne · sarahboyce · commit 12c1557060fc · 2025-06-16T09:25:25.000+02:00
When matching which entry in the `Accept` header should be used for a given media type, the specificity matters. However once those are resolved, only the quality matters when selecting preference. Regression in c075508. Thank you to Anders Kaseorg for the report.
diff --git a/django/http/request.py b/django/http/request.py
@@ -90,27 +90,38 @@ def headers(self):
 
     @cached_property
     def accepted_types(self):
-        """Return a list of MediaType instances, in order of preference."""
+        """Return a list of MediaType instances, in order of preference (quality)."""
         header_value = self.headers.get("Accept", "*/*")
         return sorted(
             (
                 media_type
                 for token in header_value.split(",")
                 if token.strip() and (media_type := MediaType(token)).quality != 0
             ),
+            key=operator.attrgetter("quality", "specificity"),
+            reverse=True,
+        )
+
+    @cached_property
+    def accepted_types_by_precedence(self):
+        """
+        Return a list of MediaType instances, in order of precedence (specificity).
+        """
+        return sorted(
+            self.accepted_types,
             key=operator.attrgetter("specificity", "quality"),
             reverse=True,
         )
 
     def accepted_type(self, media_type):
         """
-        Return the preferred MediaType instance which matches the given media type.
+        Return the MediaType instance which best matches the given media type.
         """
         media_type = MediaType(media_type)
         return next(
             (
                 accepted_type
-                for accepted_type in self.accepted_types
+                for accepted_type in self.accepted_types_by_precedence
                 if media_type.match(accepted_type)
             ),
             None,
@@ -130,7 +141,7 @@ def get_preferred_type(self, media_types):
         if not desired_types:
             return None
 
-        # Of the desired media types, select the one which is most desirable.
+        # Of the desired media types, select the one which is preferred.
         return min(desired_types, key=lambda t: self.accepted_types.index(t[0]))[1]
 
     def accepts(self, media_type):
diff --git a/docs/ref/request-response.txt b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
@@ -478,7 +478,7 @@ Methods
         None
 
     (For further details on how content negotiation is performed, see
-    :rfc:`7231#section-5.3.2`.)
+    :rfc:`9110#section-12.5.1`.)
 
     Most browsers send ``Accept: */*`` by default, meaning they don't have a
     preference, in which case the first item in ``media_types`` would be
diff --git a/docs/releases/5.2.4.txt b/docs/releases/5.2.4.txt
@@ -9,4 +9,6 @@ Django 5.2.4 fixes several bugs in 5.2.3.
 Bugfixes
 ========
 
-* ...
+* Fixed a regression in Django 5.2.2 where :meth:`HttpRequest.get_preferred_type()
+  <django.http.HttpRequest.get_preferred_type>` incorrectly preferred more
+  specific media types with a lower quality (:ticket:`36447`).
diff --git a/tests/requests_tests/test_accept_header.py b/tests/requests_tests/test_accept_header.py
@@ -170,6 +170,19 @@ def test_accept_headers(self):
         )
         self.assertEqual(
             [str(accepted_type) for accepted_type in request.accepted_types],
+            [
+                "text/html",
+                "application/xhtml+xml",
+                "text/*",
+                "application/xml; q=0.9",
+                "*/*; q=0.8",
+            ],
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            [
+                str(accepted_type)
+                for accepted_type in request.accepted_types_by_precedence
+            ],
             [
                 "text/html",
                 "application/xhtml+xml",
@@ -196,7 +209,10 @@ def test_precedence(self):
             "text/*, text/plain, text/plain;format=flowed, */*"
         )
         self.assertEqual(
-            [str(accepted_type) for accepted_type in request.accepted_types],
+            [
+                str(accepted_type)
+                for accepted_type in request.accepted_types_by_precedence
+            ],
             [
                 "text/plain; format=flowed",
                 "text/plain",
@@ -261,6 +277,16 @@ def test_accept_header_priority_overlapping_mime(self):
                 "text/*; q=0.8",
             ],
         )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            [
+                str(accepted_type)
+                for accepted_type in request.accepted_types_by_precedence
+            ],
+            [
+                "text/html; q=0.8",
+                "text/*; q=0.8",
+            ],
+        )
 
     def test_no_matching_accepted_type(self):
         request = HttpRequest()
@@ -289,7 +315,7 @@ def test_accept_with_param(self):
         ]:
             self.assertEqual(request.get_preferred_type(media_types), expected)
 
-    def test_quality(self):
+    def test_quality_for_media_type_rfc7231(self):
         """
         Taken from https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7231#section-5.3.2.
         """
@@ -314,7 +340,36 @@ def test_quality(self):
 
         for media_types, expected in [
             (["text/html", "text/html; level=1"], "text/html; level=1"),
-            (["text/html; level=2", "text/html; level=3"], "text/html; level=2"),
+            (["text/html; level=2", "text/html; level=3"], "text/html; level=3"),
+        ]:
+            self.assertEqual(request.get_preferred_type(media_types), expected)
+
+    def test_quality_for_media_type_rfc9110(self):
+        """
+        Taken from https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#section-12.5.1-18.
+        """
+        request = HttpRequest()
+        request.META["HTTP_ACCEPT"] = (
+            "text/*;q=0.3, text/plain;q=0.7, text/plain;format=flowed, "
+            "text/plain;format=fixed;q=0.4, */*;q=0.5"
+        )
+
+        for media_type, quality in [
+            ("text/plain;format=flowed", 1),
+            ("text/plain", 0.7),
+            ("text/html", 0.3),
+            ("image/jpeg", 0.5),
+            ("text/plain;format=fixed", 0.4),
+            ("text/html;level=3", 0.3),  # https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid7138
+        ]:
+            with self.subTest(media_type):
+                accepted_media_type = request.accepted_type(media_type)
+                self.assertIsNotNone(accepted_media_type)
+                self.assertEqual(accepted_media_type.quality, quality)
+
+        for media_types, expected in [
+            (["text/plain", "text/plain; format=flowed"], "text/plain; format=flowed"),
+            (["text/html", "image/jpeg"], "image/jpeg"),
         ]:
             self.assertEqual(request.get_preferred_type(media_types), expected)
 
@@ -334,3 +389,20 @@ def test_quality_breaks_specificity(self):
         self.assertEqual(
             request.get_preferred_type(["text/html", "text/plain"]), "text/html"
         )
+
+    def test_quality_over_specificity(self):
+        """
+        For media types with the same quality, prefer the more specific type.
+        """
+        request = HttpRequest()
+        request.META["HTTP_ACCEPT"] = "text/*,image/jpeg"
+
+        self.assertEqual(request.accepted_type("text/plain").quality, 1)
+        self.assertEqual(request.accepted_type("text/plain").specificity, 1)
+
+        self.assertEqual(request.accepted_type("image/jpeg").quality, 1)
+        self.assertEqual(request.accepted_type("image/jpeg").specificity, 2)
+
+        self.assertEqual(
+            request.get_preferred_type(["text/plain", "image/jpeg"]), "image/jpeg"
+        )
