Execution of AfterInsert caused by: System.StringException: Invalid id: () - where have I gone wrong?

Question

We've had a community deployment and my brain is fried and I just whipped up a quick class that is throwing the below error. What have I done wrong here?

Error: CANNOT_INSERT_UPDATE_ACTIVATE_ENTITY, MSI_UserTrigger: execution of AfterInsert caused by: System.StringException: Invalid id: () : [] () : []: ()

What I am trying to accomplish is:

• When a new user is created and is active, if they are linked to a ContactId and part of a specific profile (by name), add their ContactId to a Set<ID>
• Then loop through contacts where the Id is in the set, and update the Community_User__c field to TRUE

Trigger:

trigger MSI_UserTrigger on User (after insert) {

     if(Trigger.isAfter){
         if(Trigger.isInsert){
             MSIUserTriggerHandler.executeAfterInsert(Trigger.new);
         }
     }
}

Class:

public with sharing class MSIUserTriggerHandler {
    private static final String COMMUNITY_PROFILE = 'Community Knowledge User';
    private MSIUserTriggerHandler() {}

    public static void executeAfterInsert(List<User> newList){
        setCreatedCommunityUsers(newList);
    }

    private static void setCreatedCommunityUsers(List<User> newList){
        List<User> usersWithContacts = new List<User>();
        List<Contact> contactsToUpdate = new List<Contact>();
        Set<ID> contactIds = new Set<ID>();

        for(User u: newList){
            if(u.ContactId == null && u.ContactId == ''){
                continue;
            }
            if((u.ContactId != null && u.ContactId != '') && u.Profile.Name == COMMUNITY_PROFILE && u.isActive == true){
                contactIds.add(u.ContactId);
            }
        }

        for(Contact c : [Select Id,Name,Community_User_Created__c from Contact where Id in :contactIds]){
            if(!c.Community_User_Created__c){
                c.Community_User_Created__c = true;
                contactsToUpdate.add(c);
            }
        }
        update contactsToUpdate;
    }
}

Am I not adding the ID correctly to the Set<ID>, or am I querying wrong in my for(Contacts) loop?

Answer 1

When you perform a comparison between a String and an Id (e.g. ==, !=, or <>), then the other argument is "promoted" to an Id value. All Id values must be 15 or 18 characters long, and must contain only A-Z, a-z, and 0-9, so '' is not a valid Id.

Proof:

String a = '';
Id b;
System.assert(a != b);

Edit:

Also, there's a more efficient way you could write this trigger's function:

private static void setCreatedCommunityUsers(List<User> newList){ 
Contact[] contacts = [SELECT Id FROM Contact WHERE Id IN (SELECT ContactId FROM User WHERE Profile.Name = 'Community Knowledge User' AND IsActive = TRUE AND Id IN :newList) AND Community_User_Created__c = false]; 
for(Contact record: contacts) { 
record.Community_User_Created__c = true; 
} 
update contacts; 
}

Since we need to query for the Profile Name anyways, we can just perform all of the branch logic at once in the query, then update any records that are returned.

Answer 2

One thing, you will never hit this continue statement. The condition should be an OR not an AND... if(u.ContactId == null && u.ContactId == ''){ Good looking code. Keep it up!

One optimization to consider here, in a similar vein to what Brian mentioned in his update as I was writing this, is that you may not need the query for the Contact list to do the operation you're performing. You can just new up the list of Contacts to be updated, add your Contact with the Id and the new field value and fire away - no need to get the current state of the record (if it does not matter).

That said, you will be updating all of the Contacts regardless of whether or not the previous value of Community_User_Created__c is true so, check to make sure this is acceptable in your org.

private static void setCreatedCommunityUsers(List<User> newList){
    List<Contact> contactsToUpdate = new List<Contact>();

    for (User u: newList) {
        if (u.ContactId == null || u.ContactId == ''){
            continue;
        }

        // create a Contact reference that we're going to use for update
        // all you need is the Id and the fields to set
        if (u.ContactId != null && u.ContactId != '' && u.Profile.Name == COMMUNITY_PROFILE && u.isActive == true){
            contactsToUpdate.add(new Contact(Id = u.ContactId, Community_User_Created__c = true));
        }
    }

    if (!contactsToUpdate.isEmpty()) {
        update contactsToUpdate;
    }
}