Cannot delete empty subdataverse if it once contained a dataset which had a custom role in its Permissions

Version: 4.20

Guten Tag,

I think that custom roles can prevent deletion of an empty subdataverse. By custom roles I mean roles created as Dataverse admin by following this path: Edit (on a (sub)dataverse homepage) > Permissions > Roles > Add New Role.

This is what happened:

1. I created a subdataverse;
2. I added a new dataset in this subdataverse;
3. I published it (as admin);
4. I created a custom role, "Data Request Manager," who only has the ManageDatasetPermissions privilege;
5. At the level of this dataset, I gave a certain user (not myself, the admin) this custom role, "Data Request Manager";
6. I then moved the dataset out of the subdataverse into the root dataverse thanks to the Move Data functionality in the admin dashboard;
7. I then tried to delete the – now empty – subdataverse via the GUI, but I got the following error message:

(Transcript: "Error – This dataverse was not able to be deleted. If you believe this is an error, please contact Team SODHA for assistance.")

I think it's because of the custom role for two reasons:

1. By following the exact same steps described above but by giving a default role (e.g. Contributor or Curator) to the user at step 5 instead of a custom role, I could then successfully delete the subdataverse after I had emptied it;

2. The error messages in the server logs seem to go in this direction as well:

[2020-11-04T16:41:00.494+0100] [glassfish 4.1] [WARNING] [] [org.eclipse.persistence.session.file:/usr/local/glassfish4/glassfish/domains/domain1/applications/dataverse-4.20/WEB-INF/classes/_VDCNet-ejbPU] [tid: _ThreadID=26 _ThreadName=http-listener-1(2)] [timeMillis: 1604504460494] [levelValue: 900] [[

Local Exception Stack:
Exception [EclipseLink-4002] (Eclipse Persistence Services - 2.5.2.v20140319-9ad6abd): org.eclipse.persistence.exceptions.DatabaseException
Internal Exception: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: update or delete on table "dataverserole" violates foreign key constraint "fk_roleassignment_role_id" on table "roleassignment"
Detail: Key (id)=(10) is still referenced from table "roleassignment".
Error Code: 0
Call: DELETE FROM DATAVERSEROLE WHERE (ID = ?)
bind => [1 parameter bound]
Query: DeleteObjectQuery(DataverseRole{id=10, alias=datamanag})
at org.eclipse.persistence.exceptions.DatabaseException.sqlException(DatabaseException.java:340)
[…]

Here is the full report:

error-cust-role-del-subd.log

Could this mean that, in order to delete a subdataverse, one must not just remove subdataverses and datasets within but also custom roles created at this level?

(As far as I could see, custom roles cannot be deleted via the GUI.)

Start by reproducing the GUI sequence in the issue: create a custom role, assign it to a user on a dataset, move the dataset, and delete the empty subdataverse. Inspect the server log and the roleassignment foreign-key error, then verify that deletion succeeds without leaving custom-role references behind.