Null circ_modifier causes "Network or server failure" error

[Ben Ostrowsky]

Reported in Evergreen 1.6.0.7:

Attempting to save a copy with a null circ_modifier results in a message like the following:

Network or server failure. Please check your Internet connection to [app server] and choose Retry Network. If you need to enter Offline Mode, choose Ignore Errors in this and subsequent dialogs. If you believe this error is due to a bug in Evergreen and not network problems, please contact your help desk or friendly Evergreen administrators, and give them this information:
method=open-ils.cat.asset.copy.fleshed.batch.update
params=["[authtoken]",[{"__c":"acp","__p":[[{"__c":"asce","__p":["53","1","5","Adult"]},{"__c":"asce","__p":["31","1","3","Book-Print"]},{"__c":"asce","__p":["41","1","4","Book"]},{"__c":"asce","__p":["60","1","6","Nonfiction"]}],"1",null,"52111100192865","1058035",null,"773","undefined","t","1",null,null,null,0,0,null,null,null,null,"2","t",-1,"2","225","t","24.95","f",5,null,null,null,null,null,"1","1"]}],true]
THROWN:
{"payload":[],"debug":"osrfMethodException : *** Call to [open-ils.cat.asset.copy.fleshed.batch.update] failed for session [1282572485.364872.128257248531816], thread trace [1]:\nException: OpenSRF::DomainObject::oilsMethodException 2010-08-23T10:08:06 OpenSRF::Application /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/OpenSRF/Application.pm:202 <500> Error committing transaction\n\n","status":500}

Postgres logs show the underlying problem:

2010-08-23 10:08:06 [db server] postgres[2182]: [172-1] 2010-08-23 10:08:06 EDT ERROR: insert or update on table "copy" violates foreign key constraint "circ_mod_fkey"
2010-08-23 10:08:06 [db server] postgres[2182]: [172-2] 2010-08-23 10:08:06 EDT DETAIL: Key (circ_modifier)=(undefined) is not present in table "circ_modifier".
2010-08-23 10:08:06 [db server] postgres[2182]: [172-3] 2010-08-23 10:08:06 EDT STATEMENT: COMMIT;

Desired behavior: It should be possible to have a null circ_modifier. If it weren't possible to have a null circ_modifier, I would want the staff client to say "circ_modifier cannot be null. Please assign a circ_modifier before saving this copy." rather than throwing a "Network or server failure" error that doesn't even hint at the problem.

[Ben Ostrowsky (sylvar)]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open the drop down box for Circulation Modifier
2. Do not select one of the options and leave it as 'undefined'
3. Click Apply
4. Click Create Copies

[James Fournie (jfournie)]

Confirmed on 1.6.1.2

[Jason Etheridge (phasefx)]

Backported r14033 from way back when. :-)

http://svn.open-ils.org/trac/ILS/changeset/18970
http://svn.open-ils.org/trac/ILS/changeset/18971
http://svn.open-ils.org/trac/ILS/changeset/18972

This does change the widget so that it's no longer an editable drop-down menu allowing freetext entry of madeup circ modifiers, which is probably desirable even for older Evergreen's without a dedicated circ mod table.