Empty name for subfields not handling properly

Bug report

What I did

I was using a select2 to populate the read-only fields in the form in v4.1 To quickly trick the CRUD ignore this nested field, i set the field to be empty name. In v5, it is not properly handled…

                'name'  => 'jobs',
                'label' => 'Jobs',
                'type'  => 'relationship',
                'subfields' => [
                    [
                        'name'             => '',
                        'label'            => "Dummy Select",
                        'type'             => 'select2_from_array',
                        'options'          => $this->options,
                        'allows_multiple'  => false,
                        'wrapper'          => ['class' => 'form-group col-md-3 dummy-select2'],
                    ],

What I expected to happen

Understand that it is documented as name is a mandatory attribute. However, an empty string is not considered as undefined name. I need the proper way to skip this field. https://backpackforlaravel.com/docs/5.x/upgrade-guide#step-15 Maybe a meaningful Exception should be thrown to tell name cannot be empty string?

What happened

With Empty Name

With Name

So, it breaks when trying to save

SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column 'jobs[-1' in 'field list'

What I’ve already tried to fix it

N/A

Is it a bug in the latest version of Backpack?

After I run composer update backpack/crud the bug… is it still there? Yes

Backpack, Laravel, PHP, DB version

When I run php artisan backpack:version the output is:

PHP VERSION:

PHP 8.0.16 (cli) (built: Feb 21 2022 14:42:00) ( NTS ) Copyright © The PHP Group Zend Engine v4.0.16, Copyright © Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v8.0.16, Copyright ©, by Zend Technologies

LARAVEL VERSION:

v8.83.2@b91b3b5b39fbbdc763746f5714e08d50a4dd7857

BACKPACK VERSION:

5.0.9@d995de2026b6fcb1b13b469f371c929c29d1c1cc

[pxpm]

I’ve sent #4268 to address this.

Thanks again @kiddtang !

Best, Pedro

[tabacitu]

I am asking to handle the empty name field in a better way…

I TOTALLY agree with that. Just talked to Pedro about this yesterday… that we should throw an error with a clear message. If an empty name in a field triggers an error… then an empty name in a subfield should trigger an error too.

During the journey of the v5 upgrade, I encounter many exceptions

Please open issues when you find other confusing errors like this. It’s something we want from Backpack v5, to be a lot easier to debug. The more clear errors messages we throw, the faster developers can know what to do, instead of searching or scratching their heads.