fix: normalize and parse Json columns

adminforth/modules/restApi.ts

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import {cascadeChildrenDelete} from './utils.js'
 
 import { afLogger } from "./logger.js";
 
-import { ADMINFORTH_VERSION, listify, md5hash, getLoginPromptHTML, hookResponseError } from './utils.js';
+import { ADMINFORTH_VERSION, listify, md5hash, getLoginPromptHTML, hookResponseError, parseLooseJson } from './utils.js';
 
 import AdminForthAuth from "../auth.js";
 import { ActionCheckSource, AdminForthActionFront, AdminForthConfigMenuItem, AdminForthDataTypes, AdminForthFilterOperators, AdminForthResourceColumnInputCommon, AdminForthResourceFrontend, AdminForthResourcePages,
@@ -647,6 +647,24 @@ export default class AdminForthRestAPI implements IAdminForthRestAPI {
     this.adminforth = adminforth;
   }
 
+  private normalizeJsonColumns(resource: AdminForthResource, record: any): string | null {
+    for (const column of resource.columns) {
+      if (
+        column.type === AdminForthDataTypes.JSON &&
+        !column.isArray?.enabled &&
+        typeof record[column.name] === 'string' &&
+        record[column.name].trim() !== ''
+      ) {
+        try {
+          record[column.name] = parseLooseJson(record[column.name]);
+        } catch (e) {
+          return `Field "${column.name}" contains invalid JSON: ${e.message}`;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    return null;
+  }
+
   async processLoginCallbacks(adminUser: AdminUser, toReturn: { redirectTo?: string, allowedLogin:boolean, error?: string }, response: any, extra: HttpExtra, sessionDuration?: string) {
     const beforeLoginConfirmation = this.adminforth.config.auth.beforeLoginConfirmation as (BeforeLoginConfirmationFunction[] | undefined);
 
@@ -2072,6 +2090,10 @@ export default class AdminForthRestAPI implements IAdminForthRestAPI {
                 record[column.foreignResource.polymorphicOn] = Object.keys(targetData).find((tdk) => targetData[tdk].length);
               }
             }
+            const jsonError = this.normalizeJsonColumns(resource, record);
+            if (jsonError) {
+              return { error: jsonError, ok: false };
+            }
 
             const createRecordResponse = await this.adminforth.createResourceRecord({ 
               resource, record, adminUser, response, 
@@ -2225,6 +2247,10 @@ export default class AdminForthRestAPI implements IAdminForthRestAPI {
               }
             }
 
+            const jsonError = this.normalizeJsonColumns(resource, record);
+            if (jsonError) {
+              return { error: jsonError, ok: false };
+            }
             const { error } = await this.adminforth.updateResourceRecord({ 
               resource, updates: record, adminUser, oldRecord, recordId, response, 
               extra: { body, query, headers, cookies, requestUrl, response } 

adminforth/modules/utils.ts

@@ -209,6 +209,24 @@ export function getComponentNameFromPath(filePath) {
 export function listify(param?: Array<Function>) {
   return param || [];
 }
+export function parseLooseJson(input: string): any {
+  try {
+    return JSON.parse(input);
+  } catch {
+  }
+
+  const keywords = ['true', 'false', 'null'];
+  const normalized = input
+    .replace(/([{,]\s*)([A-Za-z_$][\w$]*)(\s*:)/g, '$1"$2"$3')
+    .replace(/(:\s*)([A-Za-z_$][\w$]*)(?=\s*[,}\]])/g, (match, before, word) =>
+      keywords.includes(word) ? match : `${before}"${word}"`
+    )
+    .replace(/([\[,]\s*)([A-Za-z_$][\w$]*)(?=\s*[,\]])/g, (match, before, word) =>
+      keywords.includes(word) ? match : `${before}"${word}"`
+    );
+
+  return JSON.parse(normalized);
+}
 
 export function deepMerge(target, source) {
   if (typeof target !== 'object' || target === null) {