Spring Admin UI is flooded with "Request failed" error toasts when EVCache size is null

[iuliiasobolevska]

Spring Boot Admin Server information

• Version:
  2.7.7

• Spring Boot version:
  2.7.5

• Webflux or Servlet application:
  Webflux

Description

Spring Boot Admin shows an increased number of error toasts when cache.size metric is absent after updating to version 2.7.7.
This is a result of the change made in 330252c that surfaces errors that were previously swallowed.

Root cause

Micrometer doesn't emit cache.size metric when EVCache size() method returns null:

• https://github.com/micrometer-metrics/micrometer/blob/e4e9ec9f120bdefdf72b166562138d229197b008/micrometer-core/src/main/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/binder/cache/CacheMeterBinder.java#L47-L58
• https://github.com/micrometer-metrics/micrometer/blob/main/micrometer-core/src/main/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/binder/cache/CacheMeterBinder.java#L95-L97

but Spring Admin expects metric to be present:

• https://github.com/codecentric/spring-boot-admin/blob/master/spring-boot-admin-server-ui/src/main/frontend/views/instances/details/details-cache.vue#L130-L131

showing a "Request failed" toast with the following error in the console when response is undefined:

Fetching cache EVCACHE_TEST size failed - error is ignored TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'data')
    at details-cache.vue:131:1
    at l (runtime.js:63:40)
    at Generator._invoke (runtime.js:294:22)
    at Generator.next (runtime.js:119:21)
    at r (asyncToGenerator.js:3:20)
    at s (asyncToGenerator.js:25:9)

Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot right now but the first time the issue was observed the whole screen was flooded with error toasts which is surprising given that shouldFetchCacheSize should get set to false when the 1st issue is observed:

• spring-boot-admin/spring-boot-admin-server-ui/src/main/frontend/views/instances/details/details-cache.vue

  Line 133 in 4b72b42

  this.shouldFetchCacheSize = false;

Potential solutions

I'm happy to submit a PR if you support the suggestion to handle response being undefined in a way that would disable further cache.size retrieval and do not show error toast at all (even for the 1st error) to not confuse customers.

[SteKoe]

Hi,

we have just released version 2.7.9 of SBA that includes a property to enable toasts spring.boot.admin.ui.enable-toasts. They are disabled by default, now.
We hope that this reduces the confusion.

[iuliiasobolevska]

Appreciate the prompt response. What I was trying to point out is that it's totally valid for cache.size metric to not be emitted and Spring Admin doesn't respect that and as a result breaks contract. Disabling error toasts would hide the issue and as you pointed out would confuse customers less but it doesn't feel like the right fix. Apologies for not clearly explaining what I think the issue is about.

[iuliiasobolevska]

@SteKoe, I would appreciate your thoughts on my last comment and wondering this issue should be reopened.

[SteKoe]

Hi @iuliiasobolevska,

sorry for closing the issue, we would love to see a PR fixing the issue in the frontend! :)

Kind regards
SteKoe