dianping/cat · error · Error

Please supply an object of options

Error message

Please supply an object of options

What it means

bootbox's sanitize() is the entry validation for every dialog (dialog, alert, confirm, prompt). It requires the effective options to be an object; the alert/confirm/prompt wrappers convert (message, callback) argument forms into an options object via mapArguments, but bootbox.dialog() has no such conversion, so a non-object passed straight to dialog() hits this throw.

Source

Thrown at cat-home/src/main/webapp/assets/js/uncompressed/bootbox.js:137

    for (k in obj) {
      t ++;
    }
    return t;
  }

  function each(collection, iterator) {
    var index = 0;
    $.each(collection, function(key, value) {
      iterator(key, value, index++);
    });
  }

  function sanitize(options) {
    var buttons;
    var total;

    if (typeof options !== "object") {
      throw new Error("Please supply an object of options");
    }

    if (!options.message) {
      throw new Error("Please specify a message");
    }

    // make sure any supplied options take precedence over defaults
    options = $.extend({}, defaults, options);

    if (!options.buttons) {
      options.buttons = {};
    }

    // we only support Bootstrap's "static" and false backdrop args
    // supporting true would mean you could dismiss the dialog without
    // explicitly interacting with it
    options.backdrop = options.backdrop ? "static" : false;

View on GitHub (pinned to e815e74d4c)

Solutions

1. Call bootbox.dialog with an options object: bootbox.dialog({message: '...', title: '...'}).
2. For simple message dialogs, use bootbox.alert(message, callback) which accepts the string form.
3. If the options may come from an external source, parse/validate it before calling: typeof opts === 'object' && opts !== null.

Example fix

// before
bootbox.dialog('Record saved');

// after
bootbox.dialog({ message: 'Record saved', buttons: { ok: { label: 'Close' } } });
// or simply:
bootbox.alert('Record saved');

function toBootboxOptions(opts) {
  if (typeof opts === 'string') return { message: opts };
  if (opts && typeof opts === 'object') return opts;
  throw new Error('bootbox options invalid: ' + typeof opts);
}
bootbox.dialog(toBootboxOptions(userInput));

function isBootboxOptions(o) {
  return o !== null && typeof o === 'object';
}

When it happens

Trigger: bootbox.dialog('just a string'); bootbox.dialog(null); calling a wrapper with three arguments so argument mapping fails and a raw value leaks through; passing a jQuery object or a serialized JSON string instead of an options object.

Common situations: Migrating code from alert() convenience calls to the full dialog() API and forgetting dialog() needs {message: ...}; passing server-rendered JSON (a string) without JSON.parse; a wrapper function forwarding arguments incorrectly.

Related errors

• button key {key} is not allowed (options are {buttons})
• Please specify a message
• button with key {key} must be an object
• Invalid argument length
• alert requires callback property to be a function when provi

AI-assisted analysis of dianping/cat@e815e74d4c (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fb7bad3ae0f1a326. Report an issue: GitHub.