From 48e71d4345b698d6c78707b4ee2559a1d64c91b7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alex Holliday <ajhollid@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:53:31 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] use null for unsetting instead of empty string

---
 .../repositories/settings/ISettingsRepository.ts |  4 ++--
 .../settings/MongoSettingsRepository.ts          |  6 +++---
 server/src/service/system/settingsService.ts     |  6 +++---
 server/src/types/settings.ts                     |  4 ++++
 server/src/validation/settingsValidation.ts      | 16 ++++++++--------
 5 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/server/src/repositories/settings/ISettingsRepository.ts b/server/src/repositories/settings/ISettingsRepository.ts
index 578d7f40d..0485a5aea 100644
--- a/server/src/repositories/settings/ISettingsRepository.ts
+++ b/server/src/repositories/settings/ISettingsRepository.ts
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-import type { Settings } from "@/types/index.js";
+import type { Settings, SettingsUpdate } from "@/types/index.js";
 export interface ISettingsRepository {
 	// create
 	create(settings: Partial<Settings>): Promise<Settings>;
 	// fetch
 	findSingleton(): Promise<Settings | null>;
 	// update
-	update(settings: Partial<Settings>): Promise<Settings>;
+	update(settings: SettingsUpdate): Promise<Settings>;
 	// delete
 	deleteLegacy: () => Promise<boolean>;
 }
diff --git a/server/src/repositories/settings/MongoSettingsRepository.ts b/server/src/repositories/settings/MongoSettingsRepository.ts
index f803ae6a9..e41abcd96 100644
--- a/server/src/repositories/settings/MongoSettingsRepository.ts
+++ b/server/src/repositories/settings/MongoSettingsRepository.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import mongoose from "mongoose";
 import { ISettingsRepository } from "@/repositories/settings/ISettingsRepository.js";
-import type { Settings } from "@/types/index.js";
+import type { Settings, SettingsUpdate } from "@/types/index.js";
 import { AppSettingsModel, type AppSettingsDocument } from "@/db/models/index.js";
 
 class MongoSettingsRepository implements ISettingsRepository {
@@ -59,12 +59,12 @@ class MongoSettingsRepository implements ISettingsRepository {
 		return this.toEntity(settings);
 	};
 
-	update = async (settings: Partial<Settings>) => {
+	update = async (settings: SettingsUpdate) => {
 		const update: Record<string, any> = { $set: {}, $unset: {} };
 
 		// Iterate through settings and separate into $set and $unset
 		Object.entries(settings).forEach(([key, value]) => {
-			if (value === undefined || value === "") {
+			if (value === undefined || value === null) {
 				// Unset undefined or empty string values
 				update.$unset[key] = "";
 			} else {
diff --git a/server/src/service/system/settingsService.ts b/server/src/service/system/settingsService.ts
index 10ac61725..519d2f390 100755
--- a/server/src/service/system/settingsService.ts
+++ b/server/src/service/system/settingsService.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { ISettingsRepository } from "@/repositories/index.js";
-import { Settings } from "@/types/index.js";
+import { Settings, SettingsUpdate } from "@/types/index.js";
 import { AppError } from "@/utils/AppError.js";
 import { ValidatedEnv } from "@/validation/envValidation.js";
 import type { StringValue } from "ms";
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export interface ISettingsService {
 	loadSettings(): EnvConfig;
 	getSettings(): EnvConfig;
 	getDBSettings(): Promise<Settings>;
-	updateDbSettings(newSettings: Partial<Settings>): Promise<Settings>;
+	updateDbSettings(newSettings: SettingsUpdate): Promise<Settings>;
 }
 
 export class SettingsService implements ISettingsService {
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ export class SettingsService implements ISettingsService {
 		return this.settings;
 	}
 
-	updateDbSettings = async (newSettings: Partial<Settings>) => {
+	updateDbSettings = async (newSettings: SettingsUpdate) => {
 		return await this.settingsRepository.update(newSettings);
 	};
 
diff --git a/server/src/types/settings.ts b/server/src/types/settings.ts
index 108cdcb72..405dc3efe 100644
--- a/server/src/types/settings.ts
+++ b/server/src/types/settings.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ export interface SettingsThresholds {
 	temperature?: number;
 }
 
+export type SettingsUpdate = {
+	[K in keyof Settings]?: Settings[K] | null;
+};
+
 export interface Settings {
 	id: string;
 	checkTTL: number;
diff --git a/server/src/validation/settingsValidation.ts b/server/src/validation/settingsValidation.ts
index b9551dd4e..f2c4e4c94 100644
--- a/server/src/validation/settingsValidation.ts
+++ b/server/src/validation/settingsValidation.ts
@@ -8,16 +8,16 @@ import { z } from "zod";
 export const updateAppSettingsBodyValidation = z
 	.object({
 		checkTTL: z.number().int().min(1).max(CHECK_TTL_SENTINEL).optional(),
-		systemEmailPort: z.number().optional(),
-		pagespeedApiKey: z.string().optional(),
+		systemEmailPort: z.number().nullable().optional(),
+		pagespeedApiKey: z.string().nullable().optional(),
 		language: z.string().optional(),
 		timezone: z.string().optional(),
-		systemEmailHost: z.string().optional(),
-		systemEmailAddress: z.string().optional(),
-		systemEmailPassword: z.string().optional(),
-		systemEmailUser: z.string().optional(),
-		systemEmailConnectionHost: z.string().optional(),
-		systemEmailTLSServername: z.string().optional(),
+		systemEmailHost: z.string().nullable().optional(),
+		systemEmailAddress: z.string().nullable().optional(),
+		systemEmailPassword: z.string().nullable().optional(),
+		systemEmailUser: z.string().nullable().optional(),
+		systemEmailConnectionHost: z.string().nullable().optional(),
+		systemEmailTLSServername: z.string().nullable().optional(),
 
 		showURL: z.boolean().optional(),
 		systemEmailSecure: z.boolean().optional(),