Remove AstroError if content directory is empty (#8382)

Co-authored-by: Emanuele Stoppa <my.burning@gmail.com>

.changeset/hungry-dancers-hug.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'astro': patch
+---
+
+Do not throw an error for an empty collection directory.

packages/astro/src/content/runtime.ts

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
 	type AstroComponentFactory,
 } from '../runtime/server/index.js';
 import type { ContentLookupMap } from './utils.js';
+import type { AstroIntegration } from '../@types/astro.js';
 
 type LazyImport = () => Promise<any>;
 type GlobResult = Record<string, LazyImport>;
@@ -55,10 +56,7 @@ export function createGetCollection({
 		} else if (collection in dataCollectionToEntryMap) {
 			type = 'data';
 		} else {
-			throw new AstroError({
-				...AstroErrorData.CollectionDoesNotExistError,
-				message: AstroErrorData.CollectionDoesNotExistError.message(collection),
-			});
+			return warnOfEmptyCollection(collection)
 		}
 		const lazyImports = Object.values(
 			type === 'content'
@@ -392,3 +390,16 @@ type PropagatedAssetsModule = {
 function isPropagatedAssetsModule(module: any): module is PropagatedAssetsModule {
 	return typeof module === 'object' && module != null && '__astroPropagation' in module;
 }
+
+function warnOfEmptyCollection(collection: string): AstroIntegration {
+	return {
+		name: 'astro-collection',
+		hooks: {
+			'astro:server:start': ({ logger }) => {
+				logger.warn(
+					`The collection **${collection}** does not exist or is empty. Ensure a collection directory with this name exists.`
+				);
+			},
+		},
+	};
+}

packages/astro/test/content-collections.test.js

@@ -244,6 +244,22 @@ describe('Content Collections', () => {
 		});
 	});
 
+	describe('With empty collections directory', () => {
+		it('Handles the empty directory correclty', async () => {
+			const fixture = await loadFixture({
+				root: './fixtures/content-collections-empty-dir/'
+			});
+			let error;
+			try {
+				await fixture.build();
+			} catch (e) {
+				error = e.message;
+			}
+			expect(error).to.be.undefined;
+			// TODO: try to render a page
+		})
+	})
+
 	describe('SSR integration', () => {
 		let app;
 

packages/astro/test/fixtures/content-collections-empty-dir/package.json

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "name": "@test/content-collections-empty-dir",
+  "version": "0.0.0",
+  "private": true,
+  "type": "module",
+  "dependencies": {
+    "astro": "workspace:*"
+  }
+}

packages/astro/test/fixtures/content-collections-empty-dir/src/content/config.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import { z, defineCollection } from 'astro:content';
+
+const blog = defineCollection({
+	schema: z.object({
+		title: z.string(),
+	}),
+});
+
+export const collections = {
+	blog,
+};

packages/astro/test/fixtures/content-collections-empty-dir/src/pages/index.astro

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+import { getCollection } from 'astro:content'
+
+const blogs =  await getCollection("blogs")
+// console.log(blogs)
+---
+
+<p>This should still render</p>