Some form data persisting `[""]` instead of `[]` for blank entries

[sjproctor]

Summary

Data fields that appear blank are rendering on the works show page. This is because at some point during form submission some attributes get assigned [""] if there is no data.

The commit 17489e60223a00d62b36525adc66c09ce1fa630a on Adventist Knapsack provided a temporary solution for the client.

The fields are:

• Date issued
• Publication date
• Publication status
• Issue
• Date submitted
• Date accepted
• Date available

Acceptance Criteria

• [x] If fields are blank they do not display

Testing Instructions

• Revert the code in app/renderers/hyrax/renderers/attribute_renderer.rb from return markup if Array.wrap(values).first.blank? && !options[:include_empty] to return markup if values.blank? && !options[:include_empty]
• Create a work with only the required metadata. Visit its show page.
• Blank metadata properties should not be displayed.

Notes

This appears to happen most often on data values. Ref: https://github.com/scientist-softserv/adventist_knapsack/issues/771

[sjproctor]

Possibly related: When editing a work, fields that can contain multiple inputs often have a blank second value added.

[ShanaLMoore]

Issue seems to be happening here.

@sjproctor to attach screenshot of params. Form looks as expected before this point. it issue can be see after evaluating 'action', here. "" values should be nil. [ " " ] values should be [ ]

Sarah has a bandaid in place for now but we still need to figure this out because anyone editing/creating a record from the frontend will introduce bad data in the system.

until we can figure out the WHY, maybe we need to clean the params?

#psuedocode
def clean_params(params)
  params.each do |key, value|
    if value.is_a?(ActionController::Parameters)
      clean_params(value) # Recursively clean nested hashes
    elsif value.is_a?(Array)
      params[key] = value == [""] ? [] : value # Convert [""] to []
    else
      params[key] = value.empty? ? nil : value # Convert "" to nil
    end
  end
end

# Call the method on your params
clean_params(params)

[sjproctor]

app/samvera/hyrax-webapp/gems/hyrax/app/controllers/concerns/hyrax/works_controller_behavior.rb

• form looks correct
• action looks correct
• params are not correct

[kirkkwang]

In Hyrax the params also get populated with [""] or "", so I'm thinking something is happening in the action

[sjproctor]

This problem is being addressed in https://github.com/scientist-softserv/adventist_knapsack/issues/771