Internal server error for getSpaceList - Response code: 500

Problem statement

An internal error occurs with a response code 500 while trying to use CLI Action - getSpaceList.

Error message 

Error data: {"reason":"Internal Server Error","message":"","statusCode":500}
Retry request on 500 error.

Log entries 

Here is a sample log for the mentioned error in which, wiki.domain.com is the URL and note that it is for representation purpose only:

{"self":"https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage","next":"/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300","prev":"/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=250","base":"https://wiki.domain.com","context":""}}
URL requested: https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300
Request type: GET
Content type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Request property Cookie, value: [JSESSIONID=D212***]
Request property X-Atlassian-Token, value: [no-check]
Request property Content-Type, value: [application/json; charset=utf-8]
Response code: 500, message: null, url: https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300
Error data: {"reason":"Internal Server Error","message":"","statusCode":500}
Retry request on 500 error.
Request property Cookie, value: [JSESSIONID=D212***]
Request property X-Atlassian-Token, value: [no-check]
Request property Content-Type, value: [application/json; charset=utf-8]
Response code: 500, message: null, url: https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300
Error data: {"reason":"Internal Server Error","message":"","statusCode":500}
Retry request on 500 error.
Request property Cookie, value: [JSESSIONID=D212***]
Request property X-Atlassian-Token, value: [no-check]
Request property Content-Type, value: [application/json; charset=utf-8]
Response code: 500, message: null, url: https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300
Error data: {"reason":"Internal Server Error","message":"","statusCode":500}
Problem determination - response: 500: null
Problem determination - response url: https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300
Problem determination - request url: https://wiki.domain.com/rest/api/latest/space?expand=description.plain%2Cmetadata.labels%2Chomepage&limit=25&start=300
Problem determination - response data: {"statusCode":500,"message":"","reason":"Internal Server Error"}
reset session

Cause

This error occurs when there no space description in the UI for Confluence space(s). It is caused because of NULL value for the Description field in the database.

Solution

To fix the mentioned error, perform these steps:

  1. Verify if the description of any space is NULL by running the below query in the database:

    SELECT * FROM spaces WHERE spacedescid IS NULL ;
  2. In case you find any space(s) having the description as NULL in the above results, make sure to update the description with a value from the UI.

  3. Once you update the description, re-run the getSpaceList action. This time, you observe no error and the CLI query result displays the list of spaces as expected. 

    --action getSpaceList --columns Key,Type,URL