#4476 breaks non-object simple-json columns

[svvac]

Bug report for 0.2.20 (MySQL/MariaDB, but it probably is backend-independent)

This added check in PR #4476 forbids using simple-json columns with non-object values as it defaults to returning an empty object if the parsed value is not an object.

This breaks existing models that support e.g. string or number values in such a column.

@Entity()
class ConfigValue {
    @PrimaryColumn()
    public key: string;

    @Column('simple-json')
    public value: any;
}

async function test (connection) {
    const repo = connection.getRepository(ConfigValue);
    const config = new ConfigValue({ key: 'numeric config', value: 42 })
    await repo.save(config);
    const read = await repo.findOne('numeric config');
    assert(read.value === 42); // fails
}

[svvac]

See PR #5125

[imnotjames]

Separate PR merged. This will be fixed in next release.