opensafely-core / opensafely-core/opencodelists

`UnicodeDecodeError` when reading csv file

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bug csv deck-scrubbing
Dominant language
Python
Stars
60
Forks
16
Avg merge
4d 12h
Merged PRs (30d)
17

Description

Sentry Issue: OPENCODELISTS-TF

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x83 in position 11: invalid start byte
decoding with 'utf-8-sig' codec failed
(8 additional frame(s) were not displayed)
...
  File "codelists/views/decorators.py", line 40, in wrapped_view
    return view_fn(request, codelist)
  File "codelists/views/decorators.py", line 139, in wrapped_view
    return view_fn(request, obj, *args, **kwargs)
  File "codelists/views/version_upload.py", line 19, in version_upload
    return handle_post(request, codelist)
  File "codelists/views/version_upload.py", line 30, in handle_post
    if form.is_valid():
  File "codelists/forms.py", line 95, in clean_csv_data
    data = self.cleaned_data["csv_data"].read().decode("utf-8-sig")

Seems this could be caused by non-decodable data in the file. Ideally we would handle this case and provide a sensible message to user.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in codelists/forms.py at clean_csv_data, line 95, where uploaded CSV data is decoded as utf-8-sig. Reproduce the upload with a file containing non-decodable data and inspect the surrounding form validation; done means the user receives a sensible validation message instead of an unhandled UnicodeDecodeError.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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