fix: Alt Name being unset causes KeyError Crash

[coldkick2]

When editing a place the application can crash if the alt_name is not set.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a person
2. Add a new event (Birth for example)
3. Assign a new place
4. Go to Places tab
5. Right click > Edit the existing location
6. Click Share
7. The application will crash with an error similar to below

2025-01-15 12:24:43.096: ERROR: grampsapp.py: line 188: Unhandled exception
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/editors/displaytabs/placerefembedlist.py", line 168, in share_button_clicked
    sel = SelectPlace(
        self.dbstate, self.uistate, self.track, skip=self.get_skip_list(self.handle)
    )
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/selectors/baseselector.py", line 149, in __init__
    self.build_tree()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/selectors/baseselector.py", line 312, in build_tree
    self.model = self.get_model_class()(
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        self.db,
        ^^^^^^^^
    ...<5 lines>...
        search=filter_info,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/placemodel.py", line 322, in __init__
    TreeBaseModel.__init__(
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        self,
        ^^^^^
    ...<8 lines>...
        group_can_have_handle=True,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/treebasemodel.py", line 368, in __init__
    self.rebuild_data(self.current_filter, skip=skip)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/treebasemodel.py", line 526, in rebuild_data
    self._build_data(self.current_filter, None, skip)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/treebasemodel.py", line 550, in _rebuild_search
    self.__rebuild_search(dfilter, skip, items, self.gen_cursor, self.add_row)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/treebasemodel.py", line 577, in __rebuild_search
    handle in skip or (dfilter and not dfilter.match(handle, self.db))
                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gen/filters/_searchfilter.py", line 33, in match
    return self.invert ^ (self.func(handle).upper().find(self.text) != -1)
                          ~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/treebasemodel.py", line 472, in <lambda>
    func = lambda x: self._get_value(x, col, secondary=False) or ""
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/treebasemodel.py", line 991, in _get_value
    value = self.fmap[col](data)
  File "/home/coldkick/code/Gramps/gramps/gui/views/treemodels/placemodel.py", line 142, in search_name
    [data["name"]["value"]] + [name["value"] for name in data["alt_name"]]
                                                         ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
KeyError: 'alt_name'

An alternative solution would be to ensure the alt_name field always exists, but it is unclear to me why it doesn't exist in this usage pattern, and this protection would ensure it doesn't break in the same way again in the future.

[coldkick2]

This issue does not seem to occur if creating the places from the Places View

[Nick-Hall]

I can't reproduce this. I don't understand step 4 - "Go to Places tab". What places tab do you mean?

If I create a new place from within the event editor, it seems to create the "alt_names" entry correctly.

[coldkick2]

I'll do a screen recording tonight, from start to end. I'll also do another pull incase it has been resolved in the last week.

Cheers

[hgohel]

@coldkick2 Does this bug affect Gramps 5.2.x release, or only the master branch?

[coldkick2]

Only master, it did not affect the release branch when I tested

[Nick-Hall]

@dsblank Can you reproduce this problem?

[dsblank]

Yes, this is a simple typo: "alt_name" should be "alt_names". @coldkick2 do you want to fix it here?

[coldkick2]

Sorry, I've been very busy. It's always something small and simple. My arch install also is crashing on boot now, so if I can't get that resolved quickly I'll close my ticket so the fix can go in on another branch.