iTop 3.3.0 — CLI upgrade fails with a misleading error when selected_modules is empty #1058

Are you willing to create (at a later stage) a PR for that?

No

iTop version

3.3.0

PHP version

8.3

Reproduction procedure

Summary

When performing a CLI upgrade of an existing iTop database with
setup/unattended-install/unattended-install.php in <mode>upgrade</mode>, if the
response file's <selected_modules> section is empty, the installer compiles only
the core (core, application, dictionaries) and aborts the compilation with:

Error: Missing unique tag: groups in: /itop_design/user_rights

The message points the reader toward a datamodel/extension problem, but the actual
cause is that no datamodel modules were selected — in particular itop-structure,
which provides the <user_rights><groups/></user_rights> skeleton the compiler requires
(MFCompiler::CompileUserRights() calls GetUniqueElement('groups') unconditionally).

Environment

• iTop 3.3.0 Community (GA, official tarball iTop-3.3.0-21411.zip)
• PHP 8.3, MariaDB 11.x, Debian (Docker)
• Upgrade of a database originally built on iTop 3.2.x (clone + wizard method)
• Extensions present: TeemIp, combodo-vsphere-datamodel (not relevant — see below)

Steps to reproduce

1. Restore an existing iTop 3.2 database into a fresh MariaDB.
2. Point a fresh iTop 3.3.0 install at that database.
3. Run:

   php setup/unattended-install/unattended-install.php --param-file=upgrade.xml --install=1
   

   where upgrade.xml has <mode>upgrade</mode> and an empty <selected_modules>.
4. Compilation aborts: Missing unique tag: groups in: /itop_design/user_rights.

Diagnosis (what actually happens)

• With empty selected_modules, the resulting consolidated datamodel
  (data/datamodel-production-build.xml) contains only 3 loaded modules
  (dictionaries, core, application).
• The consolidated /itop_design/user_rights node then has only <profiles> and no
  top-level <groups>, because itop-structure (which seeds
  <user_rights><groups/></user_rights>) was never loaded.
• MFCompiler::CompileUserRights() calls $oUserRightsNode->GetUniqueElement('groups')
  unconditionally, which throws "Missing unique tag" when no <groups> exists.
• Confirmed by bisection: removing all third-party extensions (TeemIp, vSphere) does
  not change the error — it is not extension-related.

Workaround

Provide the explicit list of modules to install in <selected_modules> (the exact set
that was installed in the source instance). Once itop-structure and the other datamodel
modules are included, compilation succeeds and the upgrade completes normally.

Suggested fix

1. In upgrade mode, auto-detect the modules of the previous environment (e.g. from
   the previous env-production/loaded_modules or from the DB), instead of requiring the
   caller to re-list them; or
2. Fail early with a clear, actionable message such as "No datamodel modules selected
   for upgrade — expected at least itop-structure" instead of the confusing
   "Missing unique tag: groups".

Additional information (if needed)

No response