json import on create project deletes useful blank data from arrays

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. pull down json data from a site that delivers one array of data for each 
record.  For example entries like:
{"id":"39766","cell":["39766","199","T1009","Ad","An","","DEU","19","01:49"]}
2. Note that one of the entries is "" ie blank
3. Import this into google refine.

What is the expected output?
I expect two columns labeled id and cell.  I expect 9 rows.

What do you see instead?
I get two columns labeled id and cell, but only 8 rows.  The "blank" entry is 
dropped.  This is problematic when I then would like to transpose the rows into 
columns, but some of my records have 9 rows and others have only 8 or 7.  

What version of Google Refine are you using?
Version 2.5 [r2407]

What operating system and browser are you using?
mac os & chrome

Is this problem specific to the type of browser you're using or it happens
in all the browsers you tried?
didn't try.

Please provide any additional information below.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by chris.me...@googlemail.com on 23 May 2012 at 6:07

• Blocking: #478

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for the bug report.  Here's a slightly more complete set of sample data 
which shows the discrepancy:

[{"id":"39766","cell":["39766","199","T1009","Ad","An","foo","DEU","19","01:49"]
},
{"id":"39766","cell":["39766","199","T1009","Ad","An","","DEU","19","01:49"]}]

Original comment by tfmorris on 23 May 2012 at 9:52

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This is fixed in r2543.  See the description in issue 596 for more detail on 
the fix, but all empty strings (and nulls) will now be imported by default.  
There's an option to turn this off and restore the old behavior, but the 
default is to do it correctly.

Original comment by tfmorris on 8 Sep 2012 at 1:32

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by tfmorris on 18 Sep 2012 at 3:05

• Added labels: Milestone-2.6

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by tfmorris on 18 Sep 2012 at 5:52

• Now blocking: #478