500 error on opening any question

[Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P]

Describe the bug

When any user tries to open any question, they get a 500 error and this error in the log

apache-answer  | 2025-11-14 12:04:43.747        ERROR   handler/handler.go:53   code: 500, reason: base.database_error, message: , error: pq: invalid input syntax for type bigint: "null"
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/apache/answer/internal/repo/comment/comment_repo.go:112 github.com/apache/answer/internal/repo/comment.(*commentRepo).GetComment
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/apache/answer/internal/service/comment/comment_service.go:399 github.com/apache/answer/internal/service/comment.(*CommentService).GetCommentWithPage
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/apache/answer/internal/controller/comment_controller.go:261 github.com/apache/answer/internal/controller.(*CommentController).GetCommentWithPage
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/context.go:185 github.com/gin-gonic/gin.(*Context).Next
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/apache/answer/internal/base/middleware/auth.go:106 github.com/apache/answer/internal/base/server.NewHTTPServer.(*AuthUserMiddleware).EjectUserBySiteInfo.func9
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/context.go:185 github.com/gin-gonic/gin.(*Context).Next
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/apache/answer/internal/base/middleware/auth.go:75 github.com/apache/answer/internal/base/server.NewHTTPServer.(*AuthUserMiddleware).Auth.func8
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/context.go:185 github.com/gin-gonic/gin.(*Context).Next
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/anargu/gin-brotli/gin_brotli.go:71 github.com/apache/answer/internal/base/server.NewHTTPServer.Brotli.func3
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/context.go:185 github.com/gin-gonic/gin.(*Context).Next
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/gin.go:633 github.com/gin-gonic/gin.(*Engine).handleHTTPRequest
apache-answer  | /go/answer_build4056531135/vendor/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/gin.go:589 github.com/gin-gonic/gin.(*Engine).ServeHTTP
apache-answer  | /usr/local/go/src/net/http/server.go:3210 net/http.serverHandler.ServeHTTP
apache-answer  | /usr/local/go/src/net/http/server.go:2092 net/http.(*conn).serve
apache-answer  | /usr/local/go/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:1700 runtime.goexit

Additionally:

• the home page and search page are working fine
• when opening a question the page is briefly rendered correctly before being replaced by the 500 error page

To Reproduce

I am not sure what could have triggered this.

Had a version 1.6.0 working ok until yesterday, then yesterday we upgraded to 1.7.0 and enabled the mellisearch plugin. After the upgrade I seem to recall opening a few questions and they were ok (not 100% sure though, might have just opened the home and search page without opening any specific questions)

Platform

• Device: Both desktop and mobile
• OS: Debian Bookworm
• Browser and version: Chrome
• Version: v1.7.0

[LinkinStars]

Thanks feedback. I have not yet been able to reproduce this issue. BTW, analysis of the error logs indicates it occurs when accessing a question's details page and specifying a comment ID(such as https://xxxxx/questions/D1a73/E1f73?commentId=10070000000011884). This behaviour typically arises when clicking on notifications related to comments. You can observe whether this particular action triggers any error.

[Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P]

No, notifications are not even enabled.

I can observe the problem simply by opening a question from the home page (or the search page), so the URL is just https://xxxxx/questions/10010000000000955

[Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P]

By the way, if I try to open a question which I know has a comment (I confirmed this by querying the DB directly), during the brief flash of the rendered page I can see before the error, I cannot see any comments.

So maybe this is simply related to the loading of the comments?

PS: If you need me to run any query to verify the state of the data in the DB I can do that.

[fenbox]

Does the same issue occur if all plugins are disabled?

[Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P]

Yes, sorry, forgot to mention it. I tried disabling all plugins (we usually have Google Connector, Chart Editor, Formula Editor, Code Highlight and Meilisearch enabled) but nothing changes.

[luixxiul]

Consistently reproduced on Postgres 18. Running with MariaDB does not reproduce the error; not sure if it can be reproduced on Postgres 17 or SQLite, but since nothing other than database engine is changed on my side, I suspect it is related to Postgres 18.

[Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P]

I reverted back to v1.6.0 (same plugins I mentioned before installed and running) and the bug is gone.

@luixxiul I am running everything in docker with Postgres 17: the database has remained unchanged since before the 1.6.0 -> 1.7.0 upgrade (when everything worked), during the v1.7.0 trial (bugged) and now after the rollback to v1.6.0 (works again).

I can confirm that just switching v1.6.0 with v1.7.0 in docker-compose.yml causes the bug to reappear.

Hope this helps.

[LinkinStars]

@Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P I used the new version of PostgreSQL and found that the cause of this issue was that the new version's(v1.7.0) request contained a null value.

This is indeed a bug. Resolving this issue may require coordinated efforts from both frontend and backend. The frontend must address the issue of null values being passed, as well as the backend must implement validation to ensure the legitimacy of the Comment ID being transmitted.

Thank you once again for your feedback. It is very important to us. We will certainly address this issue ASAP.