mattermost-community/focalboard · error

SearchBoardsForUser error getting channelMembersSQL: %w

Error message

SearchBoardsForUser error getting channelMembersSQL: %w

What it means

Same class as error 82 but for channelMembersQ: the channel-members SelectBuilder in SearchBoardsForUser could not be converted to SQL by squirrel's ToSql(). The query was structurally invalid at conversion time.

Source

Thrown at server/services/store/mattermostauthlayer/mattermostauthlayer.go:749

			conditions := sq.And{}
			for _, word := range strings.Split(strings.TrimSpace(term), " ") {
				conditions = append(conditions, sq.Like{"lower(b.title)": "%" + strings.ToLower(word) + "%"})
			}

			boardMembersQ = boardMembersQ.Where(conditions)
			teamMembersQ = teamMembersQ.Where(conditions)
			channelMembersQ = channelMembersQ.Where(conditions)
		}
	}

	teamMembersSQL, teamMembersArgs, err := teamMembersQ.ToSql()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("SearchBoardsForUser error getting teamMembersSQL: %w", err)
	}

	channelMembersSQL, channelMembersArgs, err := channelMembersQ.ToSql()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("SearchBoardsForUser error getting channelMembersSQL: %w", err)
	}

	unionQ := boardMembersQ
	user, err := s.GetUserByID(userID)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	// NOTE: theoretically, could do e.g. `isGuest := !includePublicBoards`
	// but that introduces some tight coupling + fragility
	if !user.IsGuest {
		unionQ = unionQ.
			Prefix("(").
			Suffix(") UNION ("+channelMembersSQL+")", channelMembersArgs...)
		if includePublicBoards {
			unionQ = unionQ.Suffix(" UNION ("+teamMembersSQL+")", teamMembersArgs...)
		}
	} else if includePublicBoards {
		unionQ = unionQ.

View on GitHub (pinned to a84bbb65e3)

Solutions

1. Review the channelMembersQ construction (lines above 749) and guarantee SELECT/FROM clauses are always set.
2. Log the built conditions when the error occurs to identify the malformed branch.
3. Pin the squirrel version and check for regressions after dependency updates.
4. Cover the channel-members path with unit tests including the empty-conditions case.

boards, err := store.SearchBoardsForUser(userID, term)
if err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error getting channelMembersSQL") {
		logger.Error("channel members query build failed", "err", err)
		return nil, ErrInternalSearch
	}
	return nil, err
}

When it happens

Trigger: channelMembersQ.ToSql() fails after the conditional Where(conditions) block — invalid placeholder combination or builder missing required clauses.

Common situations: A code path where channelMembersQ is built only under certain membership conditions and reaches ToSql() unpopulated; squirrel upgrade changing ToSql() strictness; malformed search parameters.

Related errors

• SearchBoardsForUser error getting teamMembersSQL: %w
• SearchBoardsForUserInTeam error getting memberBoardsSQL: %w
• SearchBoardsForUserInTeam error getting channelMemberBoardsS
• SearchBoardsForUser error getting unionSQL: %w
• SearchBoardsForUserInTeam error getting unionSQL: %w

AI-assisted analysis of mattermost-community/focalboard@a84bbb65e3 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6356048c2b4a764a. Report an issue: GitHub.