phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

Field "name" must be non-empty.

Error message

Field "name" must be non-empty.

What it means

The project.create Conduit method requires a non-empty `name`; null or an empty string throws before any transaction is built. Caveat grounded in this revision: the guard reads !strlen(name) with a missing $ sigil, so on PHP 7 the empty-string half of the check never fires (the bare name constant evaluates to the string 'name', strlen 4), and on PHP 8 the expression itself fatals with an Error before this Exception can be thrown. Do not rely on the server-side check; validate the name in the caller.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/project/conduit/ProjectCreateConduitAPIMethod.php:49

  }

  protected function defineReturnType() {
    return 'dict';
  }

  protected function execute(ConduitAPIRequest $request) {
    $user = $request->getUser();

    $this->requireApplicationCapability(
      ProjectCreateProjectsCapability::CAPABILITY,
      $user);

    $project = PhabricatorProject::initializeNewProject($user);
    $type_name = PhabricatorProjectNameTransaction::TRANSACTIONTYPE;

    $name = $request->getValue('name');
    if ($name === null || !strlen(name)) {
      throw new Exception(pht('Field "name" must be non-empty.'));
    }

    $members = $request->getValue('members');
    if ($members === null) {
      $members = array();
    }
    $xactions = array();

    $xactions[] = id(new PhabricatorProjectTransaction())
      ->setTransactionType($type_name)
      ->setNewValue($name);

    if ($request->getValue('icon')) {
      $xactions[] = id(new PhabricatorProjectTransaction())
        ->setTransactionType(
            PhabricatorProjectIconTransaction::TRANSACTIONTYPE)
        ->setNewValue($request->getValue('icon'));
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Send a non-empty, trimmed name in the request parameters.
2. Validate the name client-side before the call (see defense) so the request never reaches the guard.
3. If you maintain this checkout, restore the intended !strlen($name) guard.

Example fix

// before
$params = array('name' => $row['title']);
// after
$name = trim((string)$row['title']);
if ($name === '') { continue; }
$params = array('name' => $name);

$name = idx($params, 'name');
if (!is_string($name) || trim($name) === '') {
  // fix the source data or fail here; do not send the request
  throw new Exception('project.create requires a non-empty name');
}

function is_nonempty_string($value) {
  return is_string($value) && $value !== '';
}

Conduit clients: catch the method's Exception on project.create, but prefer pre-validating; in this revision the server guard itself is buggy (!strlen(name) missing the $), so the client is the only reliable check.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling project.create with `name` omitted, null, or an empty string. On PHP 8, any call reaching this line can also fatal on the bare-name constant regardless of the value passed.

Common situations: Provisioning scripts that derive project names from data which can be blank, and API clients with optional fields defaulting to ''.

Related errors

• Service "%s" is unrecognized, restricted, or you do not have
• Service type "%s" is unrecognized. Valid types are: %s.
• Transaction value when deleting Almanac properties must be a
• When deleting Almanac properties, each property name must be
• Transaction value when setting Almanac properties must be a

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e25d874d86d3d699. Report an issue: GitHub.