NethCTI Middleware: WebSocket transcription not working for users with string boolean settings

[edospadoni]

Problem

Users are unable to receive WebSocket transcription messages when their user settings contain boolean fields as empty strings instead of actual boolean values.

Root Cause

The /user/me API endpoint returns some settings fields (specifically desktop_notifications and chat_notifications) as empty strings ("") for some users, while the Go structs in nethcti-middleware expect actual boolean values.

This causes a JSON unmarshal error:

json: cannot unmarshal string into Go struct field Settings.settings.desktop_notifications of type bool

When this error occurs, the entire user info loading fails, preventing the WebSocket connection from being properly registered with user details (DisplayName and PhoneNumbers). As a result, the authorization check in IsAuthorizedForTranscription fails and transcription messages are not delivered to the affected users.

Example

User with the problem:

{
  "name": "Antonio Colapietro",
  "username": "antonio",
  "settings": {
    "desktop_notifications": "",
    "chat_notifications": "",
    "default_extension": "228"
  }
}

Impact

• Affected users cannot receive real-time transcription messages via WebSocket
• The issue only manifests for users with string boolean values in their settings
• Other users with proper boolean values work correctly

Related Components

• nethcti-middleware: methods/user.go (Settings struct)
• WebSocket transcription authorization logic

[edospadoni]

Testing release:

• https://github.com/nethesis/ns8-nethvoice/releases/tag/1.5.2-testing.3