Params with a "null" value are not included in request.

[ssylvia]

I'm using the updateItem method to set the itemDetails and itemData on a Story Map. If a user clicks "Unpublish", we need to remove this itemData. This should be able to be accomplished with the following:

updateItem({
  authentication: this.userSession,
  item: this.itemDetails,
  params: {
    // Clear item data
    text: null,
  },
})

However, the text: null is never included as a param in the request.

Currently, I have to make a second request if I want to update the itemDetails and remove the itemData at the same time:

addItemJsonData({
  authentication: this.userSession,
  id: this.itemId,
  data: null,
});

[jgravois]

right now to send a parameter with an empty key you need to pass "".

https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-rest-js/blob/master/packages/arcgis-rest-request/src/utils/process-params.ts#L62-L65

would that work for you in this scenario?

[jgravois]

i did a little testing and i was not able to reproduce the behavior you described.

for me, this syntax results in an error

addItemJsonData({
  authentication,
  id,
  data: null,
});

{"error":{"code":400,"messageCode":"CONT_0057","message":"Invalid JSON in 'text' parameter.","details":[]}}

i just opened #496 with a tweak that resolves the error, but does not get to the root of your problem.

with those changes:

1. data: null causes the parameter to be dropped entirely (which is consistent with the rest of the library).
2. data: "" ensures an empty param is passed.

I assume the second option is what you want. Unfortunately, the Portal API appears to ignore &text=&, even if you send the additional parameter below.

addItemJsonData({
  authentication,
  id,
  data: "",
  params: { clearEmptyFields: true } 
});

because of the hair pulling i did in #474, i can safely say that clearEmptyFields is only honored by string fields. you can pass a "," to clear tags but i don't know of another way to clear item data (other than passing {}).

[ssylvia]

Thanks @jgravois. I was originally testing by looking at the output in AGO Assistant. With further investigation on my end, it looks like passing null is not what I want as you suspected. I reached out to few members of the Portal API team and they were unaware of a method to actually clear the itemData once it's been added.

The empty text string is probably what we want. I'll submit an issue with the Portal API team to get this added. I'll close this issue for now.

[jgravois]

I was originally testing by looking at the output in AGO Assistant.

i feel you there. i've been tricked doing that too.