Value cannot be null Exception when updating data templates in Sitecore Commerce 9 on PaaS

Question

One of the post installation steps of installing Sitecore Commerce 9 on PaaS is to Update Data Templates from Commerce ribbon in Content Editor.

Unfortunately, this is ending with exception.

7300 09:38:26 ERROR Http Client Error Exception: System.Exception Message: An error occured while trying to contact the Commerce Service. Error code BadRequest

7300 09:38:26 ERROR GetList(id='Catalogs',type='Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Catalog.Catalog, Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Catalog',skip=0,take=1)?$expand=Items($select=Id) System.Exception: An error occured while trying to contact the Commerce Service. Error code BadRequest at Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connect.DataProvider.CatalogRepository.LogResponseError(HttpResponseMessage response, Boolean raiseError) at Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connect.DataProvider.CatalogRepository.d__24.MoveNext()

ManagedPoolThread #0 09:38:26 ERROR Exception Exception: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. Source: mscorlib at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(Object obj, Object[] parameters, Object[] arguments) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) at Sitecore.Reflection.ReflectionUtil.InvokeMethod(MethodInfo method, Object[] parameters, Object obj) at Sitecore.Jobs.JobRunner.RunMethod(JobArgs args) at (Object , Object[] ) at Sitecore.Pipelines.CorePipeline.Run(PipelineArgs args) at Sitecore.Pipelines.DefaultCorePipelineManager.Run(String pipelineName, PipelineArgs args, String pipelineDomain) at Sitecore.Jobs.Job.DoExecute() at Sitecore.Jobs.Job.ThreadEntry(Object state) Nested Exception Exception: System.ArgumentNullException Message: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: key Source: mscorlib at System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary`2.ContainsKey(TKey key) at Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connect.DataProvider.CatalogRepository.GetEntityView(String sitecoreId, String viewName, String forAction, String itemId) at Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connect.DataProvider.Templates.CatalogTemplateGenerator.BuildCatalogTemplates(Database database)

I navigated to "/sitecore/Commerce/Catalog Management/Catalogs" and field "SelectedCatalogs" was empty. You can see it on picture above on the bottom part. I suspect that this is causing trouble but I don't know how to make it fulfilled.

As this field is empty, it is also causing trouble with Default Catalog Setting item located in "/sitecore/Commerce/Settings/Catalog/Default Catalog":

I have clicked "Refresh Commerce Cache" couple of times and also restarted services in Azure PaaS. Nothing helped so far.

I can see catalogs for each environment without any problem in Business Tools (bizfx):

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Solution was to change value of "defaultEnvironment" element in Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connect.config to this correct value:

<defaultEnvironment>HabitatAuthoring</defaultEnvironment>

My colleague has not used default environment "HabitatAuthoring" during provisioning PaaS and configured our custom. I bootstrapped and initialized only AdventureWorks and Habitat environment. Therefore it was not working.

Another option to solve this problem would be to create and bootstrap your own environment to meet your custom environment name in config. This will be next step / correct solution during development phase of your project. First solution is to solve problem with OOTB / default values to showcase that Commerce 9 is installed and up and running.