Deleting a feature image becomes "" instead of null and breaks filter query

[NistorCristian]

Hello,
I was trying to get all posts that have set a featured image.

{{#get "posts" limit="5" filter="id:-{{id}}+feature_image:-null"}}

First ... I imported all the content from another blog. And the rule feature_image:-null was ignored.
I created a new post without the featured image and the filter works. It doesn't get the post. Then I set a featured image, saved the post, removed the featured image and saved again the post. Now the rule feature_image:-null gets ignored and the query selects the new post, even if it doesn't have an image.

So something is set in db instead of null after the featured image gets removed.

I exported the json and checked the feature_image value.
When I created the post the value was "feature_image": null and it was good, but after I set the image and removed it, it became "feature_image": "".

This breaks the filter query.

P.S. In this url: https://api.ghost.org/docs/filter ... it says filter="featured:true,image:-null" and should, probably, be filter="featured:true,feature_image:-null" and images:-null shoud be feature_image:-null

• Ghost Version: 1.10.0

[kirrg001]

Hey @NistorCristian!

Using {{#get "posts" filter="feature_image:-null"}} definitely works. Everything else depends on your code e.g. i can't guess if this id:-{{id}} is used in the correct context with a correct value.

P.S. In this url: https://api.ghost.org/docs/filter ... it says filter="featured:true,image:-null" and should, probably, be filter="featured:true,feature_image:-null" and images:-null shoud be feature_image:-null

Thanks will update our docs.

Closing, because this is not a bug. Please wait for help in slack, thanks!

[NistorCristian]

As I said {{#get "posts" filter="feature_image:-null"}} works.

But it doesn't work after I do this:
Add featured image. Save post.
Remove image. Save post.

The problem is not really with the filter tag. Is more with the fact that when I delete the featured image the value in json for feature_image becomes "" instead of null, and the post will be in the query from above, even if he doesn't have an image.

[kirrg001]

Okay i see what you mean. This affects all images, because the admin client sends an empty string instead of null.

@kevinansfield Could we change this behaviour in the admin client?

@NistorCristian I don't have a workaround for you, because our parser does not allow checking for empty strings. I have added a comment here.

[NistorCristian]

@kirrg001 No problem, I'm on local. Just testing 😄

[kevinansfield]

@kirrg001 the client behaviour can be changed but it's probably something that needs to be enforced at the server level too along with a migration to ensure consistency between old and new posts