What should we do about Cloudflare's TXT record warnings?

[tlimoncelli]

Issue

The way that DNSControl updates TXT records makes Cloudflare report this warning:

They are just warnings. Cloudflare serves the TXT records exactly as we desire. However people see the warning and file bug reports such as #3621 (comment).

We have 2 options:

1. Ignore the warnings. This means code that is clean, simple, and works. We could update the docs to tell people to ignore the warnings. A PoC for this is CLOUDFLAREAPI: Docs now explain that a common warning about TXT records can be ignored #3809
2. Change the code to do updates in a way that avoid the warning. This code is complex, might have other down-stream side-effects. It is difficult to test. Cloudflare provides zero guidence on how to do updates "correctly". A PoC for this is CLOUDFLAREAPI: Prevent web UI from displaying warnings about TXT records #3808
3. (Added later) Work with Cloudflare to add encoding/decoding functions to the SDK, so that we don't have to guess what is correct (and so that everyone that uses the API doesn't have to re-invent the wheel). Github issue Feature request: Provide functions to encode/decode TXT records cloudflare/cloudflare-go#4205 and customer support request is https://www.support.cloudflare.com/s/case/500Nv00000V0Rso/go-sdk-feature-request-functions-to-encodedecode-txt-strings

What should we do? Option 1 works. Option 2 could introduce new bugs. It is difficult to test.

[tlimoncelli]

P.S. I have filed a feature request for Cloudflare to provide encoding/decoding functions so we don't have to keep guessing. cloudflare/cloudflare-go#4205

[labrown]

Your image is broken.
I think Cloudflare is being unnecessarily pedantic and should either automatically add quotes as needed or provide clear utility functions to encode/decode TXT strings before submitting them to their API.

[tlimoncelli]

I've written a request for such utility functions. cloudflare/cloudflare-go#4205

Please upvote it if you agree.

[tlimoncelli]

I've used my support contract with Cloudflare to request that this feature request be reviewed.