Dashboard list field UI breaks when any list field has a null value

[Ali]

The dashboard provides a clean and user-friendly interface for fields of type list (e.g., list:string, list:integer). Users can enter comma-separated values, which are displayed as individual capsules and added to the existing lists. However, this UI breaks when a list field contains null—for example, if no default value is provided and no explicit value has been assigned either.

In fact, if even one list field contains a null value, the UI for all list fields on the editing page fails, even if those fields contain valid, non-null data.

To reproduce the issue, use the following example:

db.define_table('test2',
                Field('name'),
                Field('interests', 'list:string'),
                Field('locations', 'list:string', default=[]))  

Then insert a row with:

db.test2.insert(name="Alex")

Now, go to the dashboard and click on the row ID to open the editing page. The list-based UI will not function properly for interests or locations. That is because the value of interests is null for the newly added row.

Note: You can prevent this issue by explicitly setting default=[] for all list fields when defining the table.

-ali

[Massimo DiPierro]

Thanks for all your tests. They are very valuable. I will try to address them all over the week-end.

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[Ali]

Upon further testing, I noticed two new issues. None of them is very severe.

Issue 1. With IS_IN_SET , the order of elements entered in the dashboard matters. 

Consider the following minimal example:

master_set = {1: 'Philosophy',

              2: 'Society'}

db.define_table('test',

                Field('name'),

                Field('interests', 'list:integer', requires=IS_IN_SET(

                    master_set, error_message='Please make a selection.', multiple=True)))

Insert a row as follows:

db.test.insert(name="Alex")

Now, go to the dashboard and try adding 2,1 to the "interests" field. It does not work with the error message "Please make a selection."

Now try adding 1,2 (first one, then two). It will work with no issues!

Issue 2. The dashboard is not happy with the value null for a field for which the requirement IS_LIST_OF_EMAILS is added.

Consider the following minimal example:

db.define_table('test',

                Field('name'),

                Field('emails', 'list:string',

                      requires=IS_LIST_OF_EMAILS()))

Again, insert a row as follows:

db.test.insert(name="Alex")

Now go to the dashboard and try changing "Alex" to "John". The change will not be saved. The dashboard is not happy with the value null for the field "emails". If you enter a proper value for the field "emails", then the dashboard allows you to save the changes.

Note that a similar issue does NOT occur when you try inserting a row using a form. In that case, if you leave the text area corresponding to the field "emails" blank, the form will still be submitted. For what it is worth, after the form submission, the value of the field "emails" will be set to [] (an empty set).

Please let me know if more information is needed.

-ali

[Tom Clerckx]

See other conversation for test results using the latest py4web code with the latest _dashboard.

Version info:

py4web
commit bf6a8240fcbf0bee7abad30f5989521b98f13633 (HEAD -> master, tag: v1.20250607.3, origin/master, origin/HEAD)
pydal
commit 8bf77404550f0230ca8a3b4b384ed474a3562e45 (HEAD -> master, tag: v20250607.2, origin/master, origin/HEAD)

[Ali]

Thank you. I started testing the new dbadmin.

1. I verify that issue #1 is resolved.

2. The original issue #2 is resolved, too. However, I faced a new issue with the same test table. When I entered the email address "a...@gmail.com", it ended up showing as follows in the Details page:

a, l, i, @, g, m, a, i, l, ., c, o, m, 

- ali

[Tom Clerckx]

I confirm.

In addition:

After adding one or more e-mail adresses, you cannot edit the record anymore via dbadmin.

The label "emails" is shown, but the existing records or the input field is not shown

Checking the html, I notice:

<input class="type-list-string" id="test_five_emails" name="emails" type="hidden" value="&quot;cl...@circus.com; fu...@circus.com; co...@circus.com&quot;">

[Massimo]

I cannot reproduce this. The list of strigns should be rendered by this plugin and the value should not contain &quot; and should use , not ; as separator.

What is your model including validators?

[Tom Clerckx]

To reproduce, I just copied the scaffold application and added the table:

db.define_table('test',
                Field('name'),
                Field('emails', 'list:string',
                      requires=IS_LIST_OF_EMAILS()))

See attached screen-recording that illustrates the issues in the dashboard:

1) In details mode: Strange representation of the email field (30s in the screen-recording)

2) In edit mode: the email is 'hidden' (58s in the screen-recording)

3) When making it visible by removing type="hidden", you can also see that the characters are not visible against the background, unless you select them (63s in the screen-recording)

Tested in a fresh pyenv-virtualenv:

Python version: 3.10.6 (main, Jan 14 2023, 23:48:13) [GCC 11.3.0]

py4web version: 1.20250607.2

Tom.

[Massimo]

I understand it. We do not handle uniformly the formatting of lists vs lists of emails. and it works for you in normal grid without utils.js because you are not using the widget to render lists but break in dashboard because it always uses the widget.

I need to figure out a way to have a uniform representation that works with and without widget and does not break existing code. This is a bit of a puzzle.

Massimo

[Massimo]

The clean way to fix is change the way pydal works and give it default validators for list:string and list:reference.

I have now added this to pydal and this is consistent because IS_LIST_OF... ANYTHING

I will change utils.js to properly handle formatted output from these field, so I can simplify the grid.

I would appreciate if you could check the new logic in pydal.

[Massimo]

I thinks is now fixed in master (make sure to force reload of utils.js if you use it, _dashboard and _scaffold do).

Please test with your own grids and let me know whether I broken something else.

Massimo

[Jorge Salvat]

Something goes wrong with Pydal 20250622.1 and locale

i get this validation error

error is gone after

pip install --upgrade pydal==20250607.2 --no-cache-dir

always using Py4web 1.20250623.1 with new Grid

[Massimo]

Could you show me how you set the locale for the date format?

[Ali]

I removed the _dashboard app and tried to get it back using: py4web setup apps. But it did not install the _dashboard app. It just shows the message "Done!". Any thoughts? I am thinking of manually copying the folder from the py4web GitHub repo, as a last resort.

- ali

[Massimo DiPierro]

I just tried and cannot reproduce this. Did you delete the whole folder?

Copying from GitHub works but should not be necessary.

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[Ali]

I verify that the issue regarding email entry has been resolved. Thank you!