"There was a problem displaying this chart." when sharing hyperlink with pre-selected dashboard filters (but the questions themselves are working fine)

[alarmingboots]

I cannot say exactly when I noticed this issue, but I noticed it since the recent upgrade to v0.50.9 (built on 2024-07-02). Before that we were on version 48 something.

Anyways, the issue is as follows:

I noticed that when sharing a link to a dashboard that includes dashboard filters selected, then the resulting page always will show the error "There was a problem displaying this chart." This seems to apply to questions written in SQL (with field filters) and for columns that are boolean.

To help illustrate the issue, I've created a dummy dashboard with a step-by-step breakdown of what's going on:

1. Firstly, I have a dashboard where I've just written some dummy questions, where the first question is native (SQL) and the other question is built using the graphical notebook editor. For the SQL question (using PostGres), I've included 2 variables with a field filter, so that I can pass the values from the dashboard filters into it. One of these variables / columns is a boolean (has_instrument), and the other variable / column is normal text for the country. Everything works fine; each of the dashboard filters displays a dropdown of options (true / false for has_instrument, and a list of countries for country). Here is a screenshot of everything with the has_instrument filter applied, which is also attached to the Notebook question:
   

   

2. At this point, as expected, the URL of my dashboard updates to have the following: .../dashboard/201-test-dashboard?has_instrument=true&country=. However, at this point, the problem arises that when I refresh the page (or simply copy this link and open it in a separate tab), then I see the following:
   

   

   Keep in mind that I've done nothing else; simply refreshed the page. What was rendering fine earlier now throws an error.

3. At the point, I click on the actual SQL Question to investigate what is wrong with the question (which takes me to the url .../question/1707-sql-question?country=&has_instrument=true), but to my surprise, everything is working just fine:
   

   

So there is not actually an error anywhere, but for some reason, on the dashboard level, it thinks that there is something wrong, but there isn't. I'm not even really sure how to debug this, but from some experimentation I've noticed that this does not seem to happen to native questions, nor does it happen to SQL field filters that are regular text / categories. So my guess is that it might be some weird glitch for boolean fields, when trying to pass in the value true or false.

For additional reference, here is that column in the Table Metadata in the Admin Settings:

Maybe I should change it to some other field type? I find it odd that there is not "Boolean" options, so I've always had to settle for "Category". I've never seen this behavior before, so something must have broken in a recent update?

[AndrewMBaines]

I hate to do this to you, but try 50.10. There were some changes in 50.x relating to unique parameter values that caused problems. They were fixed in 50.10.
May have nothing to do with your problem, but fingers crossed.

[alarmingboots]

Hi @AndrewMBaines , thanks for your prompt response. Unfortunately, however, I can confirm that even after upgrading to v0.50.10 just now, the same problem is still present.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can debug this further? Unfortunately no error is actually thrown; it seems to be some glitch with rendering the result on the dashboard level.

[AndrewMBaines]

Sorry, I never use sql questions. There were so many limitations in the earlier versions that it was always easier to do the work on the database side or by flattening to a star schema.

[alarmingboots]

@AndrewMBaines I see. Unfortunately completely switching over to using the notebook editor is not a feasible solution for us here. Would posting this as an issue on Github get it more visibility? This is kind of an annoying bug at the moment; sharing links of dashboards is a pretty core thing we do in our company, and if the charts don't render because of this weird glitch with boolean fields (even though there's no actual error in the question) then that's a bit of a headache.

[AndrewMBaines]

Yes, github is the way to go, assuming it's not already been reported.
Best to put something together with the sample database so that others can replicate.