Allow empty groups?

[james-nash]

I've noticed that Cobalt errors when it encounters an empty group in a DTCG file. In my current setup, which uses Tokens Brücke to export DTCG from our Figma library's variables, I end up with an empty group. (FWIW, the reason we have an empty group is because our design system is still a work in progress, and we're scaffolding out groups before adding actual tokens into them.)

I've worked around this with a simple script that removes the offending group from the DTCG file, before it gets passed into Cobalt. However, I think it would be helpful if Cobalt was more permissive and just ignored empty groups rather than throwing an error. (or else this was downgraded to a warning)

It would simplify my setup a little. But I suspect it's a situation others might also encounter, so it could help others too.

FWIW, the DTCG spec doesn't say anything about empty groups, so Cobalt's approach is a valid interpretation. However, I'll raise an issue in the DTCG repo later to suggest amending the spec to be more specific about whether (or not?) empty groups are allowed.

[drwpow]

However, I think it would be helpful if Cobalt was more permissive and just ignored empty groups rather than throwing an error. (or else this was downgraded to a warning)

Yeah I think just raising a warning and ignoring it is the right call. I think people should be aware they have empty groups in their tokens.json. But you’re right—it shouldn’t prevent generation. I don’t think we should warn for groups that, say, have $description or $extensions but not tokens; only for truly empty groups ({}).

I never made an intentional decision to err on empty groups; I just really never thought to test for it. I could release a patch for this fairly quickly.

[drwpow]

I never made an intentional decision to err on empty groups; I just really never thought to test for it. I could release a patch for this fairly quickly.

Oops! I lied; I completely forgot we do err on empty groups. Let me change my answer and say “though Cobalt does err now, I do not feel strongly about it at all; and it was likely more a decision to just “not deal with it” and force the user to change their schema.” I don’t think downgrading to a warning is a significant “breaking change” that would disrupt many people.

[c1rrus]

Sweet! Thanks for the quick response. If it helps, I could contribute a PR for this.

[c1rrus]

(btw, @james-nash is me too. I have separate GitHub accounts for work and personal stuff)

[drwpow]

Sweet! Thanks for the quick response. If it helps, I could contribute a PR for this.

Would love a PR for this! Should be as simple as changing this line in core. Also selfishly would love for the great James Nash’s name to be a contributor to this project 🙂

(btw, @james-nash is me too. I have separate GitHub accounts for work and personal stuff)

Aha! I knew it! No wonder I had never seen you both in the same room before 😉

[c1rrus]

Cool, I'll have a go at making a PR tomorrow.

Aha! I knew it! No wonder I had never seen you both in the same room before 😉

"Never cross the streams" It's a miracle that the universe didn't implode! 🤪