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DsoEditMetadataValueComponent#ngOnChanges fires vocabulary requests on incomplete metadata fields, spamming 422 errors in dspace.log #5109

Open
Bug
#5874
Open
DsoEditMetadataValueComponent#ngOnChanges fires vocabulary requests on incomplete metadata fields, spamming 422 errors in dspace.log#5109
Bug
#5874
Assignees
shernandez-dev
Labels
affects: 10.xIssue impacts 10.x releasesaffects: 9.xIssue impacts 9.x releasesaffects: mainIssue impacts "main" (latest release).bugcomponent: Item(Archived) Item display or editing

Description

@MMilosz
MMilosz
opened on Feb 13, 2026

Describe the bug

When editing an item metadata field in DSpace, if the user slowly types or pauses typing while the field name is incomplete (e.g., 'dc.contri'), this triggers a 422 Unprocessable Entity error in the backend, filling dspace.log with lengthy stack traces.

Slowly typing dc.contributor.author generated 3125 lines of logs.

Tested on the latest DSpace 10.0-SNAPSHOT.

Root cause: The DsoEditMetadataValueComponent triggers vocabulary requests via ngOnChanges without sufficient validation or debouncing, see the code:

dspace-angular/src/app/dso-shared/dso-edit-metadata/dso-edit-metadata-value/dso-edit-metadata-value.component.ts

Lines 161 to 164 in abd2767

/**
* The type of edit field that should be displayed
*/
fieldType$: Observable<EditMetadataValueFieldType>;

dspace-angular/src/app/dso-shared/dso-edit-metadata/dso-edit-metadata-value/dso-edit-metadata-value.component.ts

Lines 180 to 184 in abd2767

ngOnChanges(changes: SimpleChanges): void {
if (changes.mdField) {
this.fieldType$ = this.getFieldType();
}
}

dspace-angular/src/app/dso-shared/dso-edit-metadata/dso-edit-metadata-value/dso-edit-metadata-value.component.ts

Lines 205 to 220 in abd2767

/**
* Retrieves the {@link EditMetadataValueFieldType} to be displayed for the current field while in edit mode.
*/
getFieldType(): Observable<EditMetadataValueFieldType> {
return this.dsoEditMetadataFieldService.findDsoFieldVocabulary(this.dso, this.mdField).pipe(
map((vocabulary: Vocabulary) => {
if (hasValue(vocabulary)) {
return EditMetadataValueFieldType.AUTHORITY;
}
if (this.mdField === 'dspace.entity.type') {
return EditMetadataValueFieldType.ENTITY_TYPE;
}
return EditMetadataValueFieldType.PLAIN_TEXT;
}),
);
}

dspace-angular/src/app/dso-shared/dso-edit-metadata/dso-edit-metadata-value-field/dso-edit-metadata-field.service.ts

Lines 32 to 54 in abd2767

/**
* Find the vocabulary of the given {@link mdField} for the given item.
*
* @param dso The item
* @param mdField The metadata field
*/
findDsoFieldVocabulary(dso: DSpaceObject, mdField: string): Observable<Vocabulary> {
if (isNotEmpty(mdField)) {
const owningCollection$: Observable<Collection> = this.itemService.findByHref(dso._links.self.href, true, true, followLink('owningCollection')).pipe(
getFirstSucceededRemoteDataPayload(),
switchMap((item: Item) => item.owningCollection),
getFirstSucceededRemoteDataPayload(),
);
return owningCollection$.pipe(
switchMap((c: Collection) => this.vocabularyService.getVocabularyByMetadataAndCollection(mdField, c.uuid).pipe(
getFirstSucceededRemoteDataPayload(),
)),
);
} else {
return of(undefined);
}
}

Each keystroke in the metadata field input triggers two simultaneous requests:

  1. /server/api/submission/vocabularies/search/byMetadataAndCollection?metadata={METADATA_FIELD_NAME}&collection={UUID}
  2. /server/api/core/metadatafields/search/byFieldName?page=0&size=20&sort=fieldName,ASC&schema=&element=&qualifier=&query={METADATA_FIELD_NAME}&exactName=&embed=schema

To Reproduce

Requirement: access to backend logs.

  1. Navigate to an Item > Edit > Metadata tab
  2. Press the "+ Add" button
  3. In the metadata field name input, start slowly typing 'dc.contributor.author'.
  4. (Optionally: Pause typing for <1 second while the field name is still incomplete)
  5. Observe the backend logs - multiple 422 error entries appear

Below is the output of $ docker logs -f dspace | grep -B 1 "is not a valid" command

Click here to see log messages.

2026-02-13 01:17:16,687 ERROR unknown 10221764-0610-4be7-9f90-00661c82a8d9 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: d is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:17,514 ERROR unknown db649d7f-5197-46e5-93e5-20341eb26b67 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:18,131 ERROR unknown 33a6f41c-247e-43d7-9b00-a22619501bfa org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc. is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:18,732 ERROR unknown a31d51c5-ae85-4b67-9321-9cd57a6a6ff6 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.c is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:19,225 ERROR unknown aed91490-c60c-4da1-8644-146b12db025d org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.co is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:19,777 ERROR unknown 387600f8-1c0b-44db-b63d-a4c1169ddddd org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.con is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:20,286 ERROR unknown 169a8b11-5a9f-481e-ad9d-903db7720f82 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.cont is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:20,612 ERROR unknown c2f5460b-3a88-400e-9c31-6afce6d110c9 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contr is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:21,058 ERROR unknown 66ee72ff-9029-4f14-af01-8859a15cb788 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contri is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:21,691 ERROR unknown 04e35b3e-f914-47b9-b853-601f8dd1f098 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contrib is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:22,021 ERROR unknown 37f41c8a-7635-428b-a341-69bac40a3186 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contribu is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:22,403 ERROR unknown 89b02b66-45f0-46d3-9216-a5a874b3ea93 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contribut is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:22,740 ERROR unknown 1d796e61-c8ca-45ec-9443-a493588cb272 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contributo is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:23,800 ERROR unknown 406aa231-3a27-4119-8250-2c2d40f4a9e8 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contributor.a is not a valid metadata -- 2026-02-13 01:17:24,886 ERROR unknown b61b6f0c-777d-4fc6-b75a-1ee3ce55c325 org.dspace.app.rest.exception.DSpaceApiExceptionControllerAdvice @ Unprocessable or invalid entity (status:422) org.dspace.app.rest.exception.UnprocessableEntityException: dc.contributor.autho is not a valid metadata

Expected behavior

  1. The frontend should debounce validation/vocabulary lookup requests until the user has stopped typing
  2. The frontend should only make API calls when the metadata field name matches a valid format (bare minimum: schema + element; pattern like char + . + char
  3. No unusual backend errors should be triggered during normal typing interactions
  4. The dspace.log should not be polluted with stack traces from incomplete user input

Potential solutions:

  • Implement debouncing + validation
  • Anything else?

Related work

Not found

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Labels

affects: 10.xIssue impacts 10.x releasesaffects: 9.xIssue impacts 9.x releasesaffects: mainIssue impacts "main" (latest release).bugcomponent: Item(Archived) Item display or editing

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DSpace Maintenance (10.x, 9.x, 8.x)
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