Communication Entry (Obsidian) does not populate From Name / From Address when loaded with CommunicationId

[Greyraid]

Description

An issue is present in Rock v18.1 with the Communication Entry (Obsidian) block when launching a communication from the Group Member Toolbox on a person’s profile, particularly when accessed via an external site.

The From Name and From Address fields are not populated when the communication is launched through the toolbox. This was first observed on a local Rock instance, where it resulted in an exception (shown below). The same behavior was reproduced on the Rock Solid Church Demo site, though without an exception being thrown.

When the Communication Entry (Obsidian) block is loaded with a CommunicationId query string (e.g. https://rock.rocksolidchurchdemo.com/page/362?CommunicationId=3), the From Name and From Address fields remain blank. The From Name and From Address cannot be edited manually. When you try to send the communication anyway, the message 'Please correct the following: From Name is required.' appears.

When I go straight to the page (https://rock.rocksolidchurchdemo.com/page/362) the 'From Name' and 'From Address' are filled. However, in this case, no recipients are loaded, preventing the communication from being sent.

In the local Rock instance I receive the exception '(System.NullReferenceException) Object reference not set to an instance of an object.'

This exception does not appear on the demo site; however, the functional issue persists there despite the absence of an error.

The following SQL query was used to inspect the communication record:

SELECT c.* FROM [Communication] c WHERE c.Id = 3;

I found that the 'From Name' and 'From Email' columns were blank, but the 'Sender Person Alias Id' was filled (id 10).

Running the query below confirmed that the alias ID corresponds to the currently logged-in user:

DECLARE @CommunicationId INT = 3; SELECT c.Id AS CommunicationId, c.SenderPersonAliasId, p.Id AS PersonId, p.NickName, p.LastName, p.Email FROM [Communication] c JOIN [PersonAlias] pa ON pa.Id = c.SenderPersonAliasId JOIN [Person] p ON p.Id = pa.PersonId WHERE c.Id = @CommunicationId;

Actual Behavior

When launching a communication from the Group Toolbox on an external site, the From Name and From Address fields are blank and cannot be edited. Attempting to send the communication results in the validation message “From Name is required,” preventing any communications from being sent through the external site through the group toolbox.

Expected Behavior

When launching a communication from the Group Toolbox on an external site, the From Name and From Address fields should automatically populate with the currently logged-in authenticated user’s information.

Steps to Reproduce

I tested this on the demo site. These are these steps I followed to make a group appear in the 'Groups' (Group List Personalized Lava block) block and launch a communication.

1. Created a group type named 'Test' and added a Role 'Leader' with 'Is Leader', 'Can View', 'Can Edit', and 'Can Manage Members' checked
2. Created a Group 'Test' with the 'Test' group type in the highest group hierarchy (for simplicity)
3. Added myself (Alisha Admin in the demo site), Pamela Foster, and Paul Smith users for testing
4. Navigated to the external site My Account page (https://rock.rocksolidchurchdemo.com/MyAccount)
5. Selected the Test group shown in the 'Groups' box, then on the Group Toolbox page I clicked 'Email Roster'.
6. Communication page loads (https://rock.rocksolidchurchdemo.com/page/362?CommunicationId=3) with blank 'From Name' and 'From Address'

Issue Confirmation

• Perform a search on the Github Issues to see if your bug is already reported.
• Reproduced the problem on a fresh install or on the demo site.

Rock Version

18.1

Client Culture Setting

en-US