NPE related to sorting when recreating columns

[vesanieminen]

The following error happens if Grid columns have sorting enabled and the columns are recreated:

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Received a sorters changed call from the client for a non-existent column at com.vaadin.flow.component.grid.Grid.sortersChanged(Grid.java:2791)

Steps to reproduce:

1. git clone [email protected]:vesanieminen/Vaadin-Grid-recreate-columns-bug.git
2. mvn jetty:run
3. navigate to localhost:9997
4. click on the sorting buttons on the grid header for one of the columns
5. Select a different value from the Select component.

Expected behaviour:

• The Grid columns are recreated with no exceptions in the backend

Actual behaviour:

• The Grid columns are recreated with an exception.

Workaround exists here: vesanieminen/Vaadin-Grid-recreate-columns-bug@100d56c

Full error log for the bug:

[qtp1571205437-69] ERROR com.vaadin.flow.server.DefaultErrorHandler - java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Received a sorters changed call from the client for a non-existent column at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.rpc.PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.invokeMethod(PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.java:174) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.rpc.PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.invokeMethod(PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.java:129) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.rpc.PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.handleNode(PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.java:117) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.rpc.AbstractRpcInvocationHandler.handle(AbstractRpcInvocationHandler.java:64) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.ServerRpcHandler.handleInvocationData(ServerRpcHandler.java:387) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.ServerRpcHandler.lambda$handleInvocations$1(ServerRpcHandler.java:368) at java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1251) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.ServerRpcHandler.handleInvocations(ServerRpcHandler.java:368) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.ServerRpcHandler.handleRpc(ServerRpcHandler.java:310) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.UidlRequestHandler.synchronizedHandleRequest(UidlRequestHandler.java:89) at com.vaadin.flow.server.SynchronizedRequestHandler.handleRequest(SynchronizedRequestHandler.java:40) at com.vaadin.flow.server.VaadinService.handleRequest(VaadinService.java:1507) at com.vaadin.flow.server.VaadinServlet.service(VaadinServlet.java:242) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:790) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:865) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1655) at org.eclipse.jetty.websocket.server.WebSocketUpgradeFilter.doFilter(WebSocketUpgradeFilter.java:215) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1642) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doHandle(ServletHandler.java:533) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:146) at org.eclipse.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:548) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:132) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextHandle(ScopedHandler.java:257) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doHandle(SessionHandler.java:1595) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextHandle(ScopedHandler.java:255) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.__doHandle(ContextHandler.java:1317) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doHandle(ContextHandler.java:42020) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextScope(ScopedHandler.java:203) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doScope(ServletHandler.java:473) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doScope(SessionHandler.java:1564) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextScope(ScopedHandler.java:201) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doScope(ContextHandler.java:1219) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:144) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:219) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:126) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:132) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.handle(Server.java:531) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpChannel.handle(HttpChannel.java:352) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpConnection.onFillable(HttpConnection.java:260) at org.eclipse.jetty.io.AbstractConnection$ReadCallback.succeeded(AbstractConnection.java:281) at org.eclipse.jetty.io.FillInterest.fillable(FillInterest.java:102) at org.eclipse.jetty.io.ChannelEndPoint$2.run(ChannelEndPoint.java:118) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.EatWhatYouKill.runTask(EatWhatYouKill.java:333) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.EatWhatYouKill.doProduce(EatWhatYouKill.java:310) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.EatWhatYouKill.tryProduce(EatWhatYouKill.java:168) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.EatWhatYouKill.run(EatWhatYouKill.java:126) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.ReservedThreadExecutor$ReservedThread.run(ReservedThreadExecutor.java:366) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool.runJob(QueuedThreadPool.java:762) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool$2.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:680) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745) Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Received a sorters changed call from the client for a non-existent column at com.vaadin.flow.component.grid.Grid.sortersChanged(Grid.java:2791) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.__invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:45009) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:45012) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) at com.vaadin.flow.server.communication.rpc.PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.invokeMethod(PublishedServerEventHandlerRpcHandler.java:167) ... 49 more

[mperktold]

We experience the same problem in our project.

Our use case is to switch between one set of displayed columns to another set of columns when the viewport width changes beyond a certain threshold, to implement responsive tables.

As there is currently no API for inserting new columns at a certain index between existing ones, the only way is to remove all columns of the old set and add the ones of the new set.

I tried the workaround you suggested, but it didn't work in my case.
The following workaround works better, but still does not handle all cases.

It follows another approach: Your's is to temporarily reset the order and disable sorting for all columns, mine is to tell the client to avoid sending sorters-change events to the server while columns are being updated.

So on the server side, I have a custom Grid implementation:

@Tag("vaadin-custom-grid")
@HtmlImport("src/grid/custom-grid.html")
public class ExtendedGrid<T> extends Grid<T> implements KeyNotifier {

    @ClientCallable
    private void refresh() {
        getDataProvider().refreshAll();
    }

    @ClientCallable
    private void clientUpdatedColumns() {
        getElement().setProperty("_updatingColumns", false);
    }

    public void setUpdatingColumns() {
        getElement().setProperty("_updatingColumns", true);
    }
}

With the following client-side implementation:

class GridElement extends Vaadin.GridElement {

    static get is() {
        return "vaadin-custom-grid";
    }

    static get properties() {
        return {
            _updatingColumns: {
                type: Boolean,
                value: false,
                observer: "_updatingColumnsChanged"
            }
        };
    }

    _updatingColumnsChanged(value, oldValue) {
        if (value)
            this.$server.clientUpdatedColumns();
        else
            this.$server.refresh();
    }

    _onSorterChanged(e) {
        if (!this._updatingColumns)
            super._onSorterChanged(e);
    }
}

The server must call setUpdatingColumns() before recreating columns to activates a corresponding boolean flag on the client side.

As long as this flag is activated, the client ignores all sorter-changed events to prevent the error.
Also, when the client activates the flag, it tells the server about it.
The idea is to keep the flag active for one roundtrip, and to reset it afterwards.

Finally, when resetting the flag, we refresh the data.
I don't know why, but I needed this to prevent ending up with an empty table page after changing the columns.

Now this whole approach works fine for me, except when there is an open Vaadin Dialog while changing columns. Then I still get the same error.

I have no idea how the dialog relates to the grid columns, but this is what I am experiencing.

[mperktold]

In the meantime, we now use Grid.addColumn, Grid.removeColumn, and Grid.setColumnOrder to update the only those columns that actually changed.
That seems to improve things, but the error still appears from time to time.

[KasparScherrer]

I'm running into this issue as well, basically whenever i call removeColumn on a column that was sortable (and the user actually sorted it). The two workarounds suggested here aren't doing it for me.

This leads to me creating a new instance of my grid whenever i would remove a column. I really don't like this.
Therefore i wish the underlying bug would be fixed so that when I remove any column, the frontend-part stops trying to sort a column that no longer exists.

[tomivirkki]

The issue is likely caused by vaadin/vaadin-grid#1691

[szlac71]

			for(Column<T> col : grid.getColumns()) {
				col.setSortable(false);
			}
			grid.sort(null);

[dskbrd]

I ran into the same problem when removing a sorted column and I think I found a possible workaround by manually clearing the "_sorters" referenced by the frontend-component before removing any column:

// Clear any previous sorting
grid.sort(null);
// Explicilty clear sorting referenced in frontend
grid.getElement().executeJs("this._sorters = []");
// Remove column from grid
grid.removeColumnByKey(fieldName);

This seems to fix the issue but I am not yet sure what other side effects this may cause.

[vaadin-bot]

This ticket/PR has been released with platform 19.0.7. For prerelease versions, it will be included in its final version.

[vaadin-bot]

This ticket/PR has been released with platform 20.0.0.beta2. For prerelease versions, it will be included in its final version.

[cmrgKoradir]

@dskbrd I don't suppose you remember, but in case anybody is reading this, is there a side-effect to this workaround we should be aware of?

Because as it turns out, we can still run into this in vaadin 24.2.

[web-padawan]

@cmrgKoradir If you have a code example to reproduce the problem, please submit a new issue and we will look into it.
Also please check if it's valid with a more recent version, preferably 24.4 or 24.3.