Setup not reporting useful errors when connecting to a db

[blockingHD]

Which Umbraco version are you using? (Please write the exact version, example: 10.1.0)

9.0.0 - 12.0.0

Bug summary

When adding a database the validation fails with no information on why it has failed. For instance if the database does not exist on a server it gives the same information as if the username and password were wrong. Despite having this information returned from the server.

Specifics

No response

Steps to reproduce

Create new instance
Change database
Change to SQL Server
Fill in details but point to a non existent database
Click Install
Error is 'Database Validation Failed'

Expected result / actual result

A useful error message is displayed like 'Database does not exist'

[github-actions]

Hi there @blockingHD!

Firstly, a big thank you for raising this issue. Every piece of feedback we receive helps us to make Umbraco better.

We really appreciate your patience while we wait for our team to have a look at this but we wanted to let you know that we see this and share with you the plan for what comes next.

• We'll assess whether this issue relates to something that has already been fixed in a later version of the release that it has been raised for.
• If it's a bug, is it related to a release that we are actively supporting or is it related to a release that's in the end-of-life or security-only phase?
• We'll replicate the issue to ensure that the problem is as described.
• We'll decide whether the behavior is an issue or if the behavior is intended.

We wish we could work with everyone directly and assess your issue immediately but we're in the fortunate position of having lots of contributions to work with and only a few humans who are able to do it. We are making progress though and in the meantime, we will keep you in the loop and let you know when we have any questions.

Thanks, from your friendly Umbraco GitHub bot 🤖 🙂

[andr317c]

Hey!

Thanks for reporting the issue! I tried reproducing your issue, but I was not able to reproduce it.

What I tried:

1. Installed a clean version of v12.0.0(I also tried v10.6.0)
2. Configured the database type to SQL Server
3. I added my SQL Server and a nonexisting database
4. I clicked on Install

The error I got was 'Could not connect to database'. I got this message on v12.0.0 and 10.6.0

Please let me know if there is anything I am missing to reproduce your issue! 😄

[blockingHD]

"Could not connect to database" is still not a useful error. SQL errors are far from good but they do give you information on if the login failed vs the database not existing etc. Either these should be wrapped and reported to the user nicely or the SQL error should be bubbled up to the UI.

[andr317c]

That's a very good point, I believe the choice may have been made to not overwhelm the UI with errors, and instead write the details, including a full stack trace to the logs, where it can then be examined. Of course, we don't mention this, which should probably be remedied.
However, this is worth bringing up with the team to see if we can improve it, right now we're in the middle of summer vacation season, so I'll wait with bringing it up till we're all back. For now, you can see more details in the logs in the \umbraco\Logs.
Thanks again for bringing it up 😄

[andr317c]

Hey again!

We talked internally on the team, and we concluded that it would be nice to have a more verbose error message. It would also be a good idea to note that we have the /Umbraco/Logs, which usually has a lot of great information when encountering an error 😄

I will mark this as an up for grabs!