mattermost-community/focalboard · error

invalid board search field

Error message

invalid board search field

What it means

ErrInvalidBoardSearchField is returned when a search request specifies a board field name that is not a searchable/supported field. BoardSearchFieldFromString converts a string to a BoardSearchField enum and errors on unrecognized values. It is an input-validation error preventing arbitrary field injection into search queries.

Source

Thrown at server/model/error.go:28

	mmModel "github.com/mattermost/mattermost/server/public/model"

	pluginapi "github.com/mattermost/mattermost/server/public/pluginapi"
)

var (
	ErrViewsLimitReached        = errors.New("views limit reached for board")
	ErrPatchUpdatesLimitedCards = errors.New("patch updates cards that are limited")

	ErrInsufficientLicense = errors.New("appropriate license required")

	ErrCategoryPermissionDenied = errors.New("category doesn't belong to user")
	ErrCategoryDeleted          = errors.New("category is deleted")

	ErrBoardMemberIsLastAdmin = errors.New("cannot leave a board with no admins")

	ErrRequestEntityTooLarge = errors.New("request entity too large")

	ErrInvalidBoardSearchField = errors.New("invalid board search field")
)

// ErrNotFound is an error type that can be returned by store APIs
// when a query unexpectedly fetches no records.
type ErrNotFound struct {
	entity string
}

// NewErrNotFound creates a new ErrNotFound instance.
func NewErrNotFound(entity string) *ErrNotFound {
	return &ErrNotFound{
		entity: entity,
	}
}

func (nf *ErrNotFound) Error() string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("{%s} not found", nf.entity)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a84bbb65e3)

Solutions

1. Use one of the supported search field constants (e.g. title) exactly as defined
2. Check the model package for the current list of valid BoardSearchField values
3. Update client code to match your server's Boards version

Example fix

// before
field, err := model.BoardSearchFieldFromString("titel")
// after
field, err := model.BoardSearchFieldFromString("title")

field, err := model.BoardSearchFieldFromString(userInput)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("unsupported search field %q", userInput)
}

func isInvalidSearchFieldErr(err error) bool {
    return errors.Is(err, model.ErrInvalidBoardSearchField)
}

field, err := model.BoardSearchFieldFromString(name)
if errors.Is(err, model.ErrInvalidBoardSearchField) {
    return model.BoardSearchFieldTitle // default safely
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing an unsupported field string to the boards search API or BoardSearchFieldFromString — e.g. a typo like 'titel' instead of 'title', or a field added in a newer version than the server supports.

Common situations: API clients hardcoding field names that changed between versions; custom scripts searching by fields not in the allowlist; case-sensitivity mistakes in field names.

Related errors

• block fields size limit exceeded
• at least one board is required
• at least one block is required
• team ID cannot be empty
• board ids and patches need to match

AI-assisted analysis of mattermost-community/focalboard@a84bbb65e3 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/81a78d716e9ee6ed. Report an issue: GitHub.