UpdaterJob fails with TypeError Exception

[y3n4]

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Explain the Problem

Users reported that the news app fould not fetch new articles of subscribed blogs.

A look into the logs revealed that the UpdaterJob has failed for every run at least the last month:

Contents of nextcloud/data/nextcloud.log

{
  "Exception": "TypeError",
  "Message": "FeedIo\\Reader\\Document0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0loadJsonAsArray(): Return value must be of type array, null returned",
  "Code": 0,
  "Trace": [
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader/Document.php",
      "line": 51,
      "function": "loadJsonAsArray",
      "class": "FeedIo\\Reader\\Document",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Parser/JsonParser.php",
      "line": 47,
      "function": "getJsonAsArray",
      "class": "FeedIo\\Reader\\Document",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/ParserAbstract.php",
      "line": 35,
      "function": "checkBodyStructure",
      "class": "FeedIo\\Parser\\JsonParser",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader.php",
      "line": 115,
      "function": "parse",
      "class": "FeedIo\\ParserAbstract",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader.php",
      "line": 97,
      "function": "parseDocument",
      "class": "FeedIo\\Reader",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader.php",
      "line": 76,
      "function": "handleResponse",
      "class": "FeedIo\\Reader",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/FeedIo.php",
      "line": 126,
      "function": "read",
      "class": "FeedIo\\Reader",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/lib/Fetcher/FeedFetcher.php",
      "line": 141,
      "function": "read",
      "class": "FeedIo\\FeedIo",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/lib/Service/FeedServiceV2.php",
      "line": 320,
      "function": "fetch",
      "class": "OCA\\News\\Fetcher\\FeedFetcher",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/lib/Service/FeedServiceV2.php",
      "line": 422,
      "function": "fetch",
      "class": "OCA\\News\\Service\\FeedServiceV2",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/lib/Service/UpdaterService.php",
      "line": 63,
      "function": "fetchAll",
      "class": "OCA\\News\\Service\\FeedServiceV2",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/lib/Cron/UpdaterJob.php",
      "line": 58,
      "function": "update",
      "class": "OCA\\News\\Service\\UpdaterService",
      "type": "->",
      "args": [
        "*** sensitive parameters replaced ***"
      ]
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/lib/public/BackgroundJob/Job.php",
      "line": 61,
      "function": "run",
      "class": "OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/lib/public/BackgroundJob/TimedJob.php",
      "line": 88,
      "function": "start",
      "class": "OCP\\BackgroundJob\\Job",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/lib/public/BackgroundJob/TimedJob.php",
      "line": 75,
      "function": "start",
      "class": "OCP\\BackgroundJob\\TimedJob",
      "type": "->"
    },
    {
      "file": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/cron.php",
      "line": 162,
      "function": "execute",
      "class": "OCP\\BackgroundJob\\TimedJob",
      "type": "->"
    }
  ],
  "File": "/var/www/cloud/nextcloud-30.0.6/apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader/Document.php",
  "Line": 89,
  "message": "Error while running background job OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob (id: 1069944, arguments: null)",
  "exception": {},
  "CustomMessage": "Error while running background job OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob (id: 1069944, arguments: null)"
}

Steps to Reproduce

Let cron job run

System Information

• News app version: 25.3.1
• Nextcloud version: 30.0.6.2
• Cron type: system cron
• PHP version: 8.2.28
• Database and version: 10.11.11-MariaDB
• Browser and version: -
• OS and version: Debian 12

[varac]

I can confirm this. Most of my feeds weren't updating anymore so I looked in the logs and found this (I readacted the feed URL with https://example.org/feed.rss):

{"reqId":"98xXrGoJ3gyBiQbso8tT","level":3,"time":"June 01, 2025 16:46:24","remoteAddr":"","user":"--","app":"core","method":"","url":"--","message":"Error while running background job OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob (id: 6135, arguments: null)","userAgent":"--","version":"31.0.5.1","exception":{"Exception":"TypeError","Message":"FeedIo\\Reader\\Document::loadJsonAsArray(): Return value must be of type array, null returned","Code":0,"Trace":[{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader/Document.php","line":51,"function":"loadJsonAsArray","class":"FeedIo\\Reader\\Document","type":"->","args":[]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Parser/JsonParser.php","line":47,"function":"getJsonAsArray","class":"FeedIo\\Reader\\Document","type":"->","args":[]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/ParserAbstract.php","line":35,"function":"checkBodyStructure","class":"FeedIo\\Parser\\JsonParser","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Reader\\Document"},["version","title","items"]]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader.php","line":115,"function":"parse","class":"FeedIo\\ParserAbstract","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Reader\\Document"},{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Feed"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader.php","line":97,"function":"parseDocument","class":"FeedIo\\Reader","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Reader\\Document"},{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Feed"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader.php","line":76,"function":"handleResponse","class":"FeedIo\\Reader","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Adapter\\Guzzle\\Response"},{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Feed"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/FeedIo.php","line":126,"function":"read","class":"FeedIo\\Reader","type":"->","args":["https://example.org/feed.rss",{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Feed"},{"**class**":"DateTime"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/lib/Fetcher/FeedFetcher.php","line":141,"function":"read","class":"FeedIo\\FeedIo","type":"->","args":["https://example.org/feed.rss",{"**class**":"FeedIo\\Feed"},{"**class**":"DateTime"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/lib/Service/FeedServiceV2.php","line":320,"function":"fetch","class":"OCA\\News\\Fetcher\\FeedFetcher","type":"->","args":["https://example.org/feed.rss",false,null,null,"Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:37:45 +0000"]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/lib/Service/FeedServiceV2.php","line":422,"function":"fetch","class":"OCA\\News\\Service\\FeedServiceV2","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"OCA\\News\\Db\\Feed","id":225,"items":[]}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/lib/Service/UpdaterService.php","line":63,"function":"fetchAll","class":"OCA\\News\\Service\\FeedServiceV2","type":"->","args":[]},{"file":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/lib/Cron/UpdaterJob.php","line":58,"function":"update","class":"OCA\\News\\Service\\UpdaterService","type":"->","args":["***sensitive parameters replaced***"]},{"file":"/var/www/html/lib/public/BackgroundJob/Job.php","line":61,"function":"run","class":"OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob","type":"->","args":[null]},{"file":"/var/www/html/lib/public/BackgroundJob/TimedJob.php","line":97,"function":"start","class":"OCP\\BackgroundJob\\Job","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"OC\\BackgroundJob\\JobList"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/lib/public/BackgroundJob/TimedJob.php","line":84,"function":"start","class":"OCP\\BackgroundJob\\TimedJob","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"OC\\BackgroundJob\\JobList"}]},{"file":"/var/www/html/cron.php","line":170,"function":"execute","class":"OCP\\BackgroundJob\\TimedJob","type":"->","args":[{"**class**":"OC\\BackgroundJob\\JobList"}]}],"File":"/var/www/html/custom_apps/news/vendor/debril/feed-io/src/FeedIo/Reader/Document.php","Line":89,"message":"Error while running background job OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob (id: 6135, arguments: null)","exception":{},"CustomMessage":"Error while running background job OCA\\News\\Cron\\UpdaterJob (id: 6135, arguments: null)"}}

$ curl -i https://example.org/feed.rss
HTTP/2 200 
alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000
content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8
date: Sun, 01 Jun 2025 15:06:36 GMT
strict-transport-security: max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains
via: 1.1 Caddy
content-length: 162

{"data":null,"status":"error","error":{"code":1000,"message":"not found"}}{"data":null,"status":"error","error":{"code":1000,"message":"ticker not found"}}%             

This is quite bad, because it stops the updater process in the middle and (in my case) most other feeds weren't updated at all.

The problem is in feed-io which uses .startsWith('{') (source) to detect if something is JSON but then forgets to check if the content is actually valid JSON...

With the example shown by @varac this will trigger the json_decode() call here and pass it the invalid JSON in $this->content which causes json_decode() to return null.

In case of XML the code does check for errors: https://github.com/alexdebril/feed-io/blob/7d0bad46434c2717c41aa92109a1ff8262b4ca2b/src/FeedIo/Reader/Document.php#L63

Based on the rest of the code this version of loadJsonAsArray() (replacing this one) might fix the problem:

protected function loadJsonAsArray(): array
{
    if (! $this->isJson()) {
        throw new \LogicException('this document is not a JSON stream');
    }

    $data = json_decode($this->content, true);
    $jsonLastError = json_last_error();
    if (JSON_ERROR_NONE !== $jsonLastError) {
        throw new \InvalidArgumentException("malformed JSON string. parsing error : $jsonLastError");
    }
    
    return $data === null ? array() : $data;
}

[Grotax]

If someone is interested to fix this feed-io now lives here: https://github.com/php-feed-io/feed-io

And PRs are welcome.

[eureka928]

@Grotax I am gonna take this issue

[eureka928]

@SMillerDev what is your opinion? can you assign me?
I am gonna handle error in this file - lib/Fetcher/FeedFetcher.php
thank you

[SMillerDev]

You can just make a pull request, assigning an issue doesn't provide any value

[eureka928]

You can just make a pull request, assigning an issue doesn't provide any value

eureka928@55ef12e

If you don't mind, would you review my changes before I put the PR?
I want to put only correct PRs, thank you for your time and understanding

[eureka928]

cc: @Grotax please review my commit above if it looks good to you
Thank you

[SMillerDev]

That's not a fix for the issue, it's a workaround for the symptoms. The only place to fix this is in the library where it throws

[eureka928]

That's not a fix for the issue, it's a workaround for the symptoms. The only place to fix this is in the library where it throws

it means we should fix from here?
https://github.com/php-feed-io/feed-io

[SMillerDev]

Yes, this should be fixed in the feed-io library

[eureka928]

Yes, this should be fixed in the feed-io library

After I fix the feed-io library, no need to touch this news repo?