PMS dashboard widgets throw JS errors on empty data (message-only JSON)

[mfamularopsyc]

Description

Summary

On a fresh install with little/no PMS data, some dashboard charts log JavaScript errors and fail to render gracefully. The PMS endpoints return 200 OK with a message-only JSON body (e.g., {"message":"No records available at the moment."}), while the front-end assumes labels/datasets arrays and calls .length on undefined. Charts that do have data render fine.

Environment

• Horilla: branch 1.0, commit 7560e935
• Python: 3.12 • Gunicorn: 23.0.0
• OS/Web: Ubuntu + Nginx 1.24 (behind AWS CloudFront)
• DB: AWS RDS PostgreSQL 16.8
• Cache/Sessions: Redis (AWS ElastiCache 7.1) via django-redis
• Site: https://hr.***.net/

Notes

• This occurs only for widgets with no data; other charts render correctly.

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

1. Fresh instance (no PMS objectives/feedback/key results yet).
2. Log in → open Dashboard.
3. Check DevTools Console and Network (XHR).

Expected Behavior

Expected Behavior

Empty PMS widgets should not throw errors. Prefer one of:

• Backend: return a consistent empty shape, e.g.

  {"labels": [], "datasets": []}

• Frontend: coerce missing keys to empty arrays before passing to Chart.js:

  const labels   = Array.isArray(resp?.labels)   ? resp.labels   : [];
  const datasets = Array.isArray(resp?.datasets) ? resp.datasets : [];
  if (datasets.length) { /* build chart */ } else { /* show empty state */ }

Actual Behavior

Actual Behavior

• Console shows errors like:

  chart.js:13 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'length')
  ...
  pmsChart.js:60 objectiveStatusDataUpdate
  pmsChart.js:159 keyResultStatusDataUpdate
  pmsChart.js:243 feedbackStatusDataUpdate
  

• Example endpoint returns 200 with message-only JSON:

  • GET /pms/dashboard-feedback-status

  • Content-Type: application/json

  • Body:

    {"message": "No records available at the moment."}

Screenshots

No response

Django Version

na

Python Version

3.12

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04

Browser

No response

Additional Information

No response

Possible Solution

No response

Labels

bug

Priority

Medium

Assignees

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Related Issues

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Submission Checklist

• I have searched for duplicate issues
• I have provided as much detail as possible