From 229a99ba24d7676f5608bcb662bbe047d4a3bf42 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dan Brown <development@danb.me>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:22:54 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Descriptions: Improved empty field handling, reduces
 whitespace

For #5724
---
 app/Entities/Tools/EntityHtmlDescription.php  |  5 +++++
 .../form/description-html-input.blade.php     |  2 +-
 tests/Entity/BookTest.php                     | 21 +++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/app/Entities/Tools/EntityHtmlDescription.php b/app/Entities/Tools/EntityHtmlDescription.php
index b14deb257..795aaf4aa 100644
--- a/app/Entities/Tools/EntityHtmlDescription.php
+++ b/app/Entities/Tools/EntityHtmlDescription.php
@@ -50,6 +50,11 @@ class EntityHtmlDescription
             return $html;
         }
 
+        $isEmpty = empty(trim(strip_tags($html)));
+        if ($isEmpty) {
+            return '<p></p>';
+        }
+
         return HtmlContentFilter::removeActiveContentFromHtmlString($html);
     }
 
diff --git a/resources/views/form/description-html-input.blade.php b/resources/views/form/description-html-input.blade.php
index 983d2fb83..4b0a74df1 100644
--- a/resources/views/form/description-html-input.blade.php
+++ b/resources/views/form/description-html-input.blade.php
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <textarea component="wysiwyg-input"
           option:wysiwyg-input:text-direction="{{ $locale->htmlDirection() }}"
           id="description_html" name="description_html" rows="5"
-          @if($errors->has('description_html')) class="text-neg" @endif>@if(isset($model) || old('description_html')){{ old('description_html') ?? $model->descriptionInfo()->getHtml() }}@endif</textarea>
+          @if($errors->has('description_html')) class="text-neg" @endif>@if(isset($model) || old('description_html')){{ old('description_html') ?? $model->descriptionInfo()->getHtml() }}@else{{ '<p></p>' }}@endif</textarea>
 @if($errors->has('description_html'))
     <div class="text-neg text-small">{{ $errors->first('description_html') }}</div>
 @endif
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/Entity/BookTest.php b/tests/Entity/BookTest.php
index 5f0aabc38..6082c59de 100644
--- a/tests/Entity/BookTest.php
+++ b/tests/Entity/BookTest.php
@@ -278,4 +278,25 @@ class BookTest extends TestCase
         $resp = $this->asEditor()->get($book->getUrl());
         $resp->assertSee("<p>My great<br>\ndescription<br>\n<br>\nwith newlines</p>", false);
     }
+
+    public function test_description_with_only_br_tags_results_in_empty_p_tag_used_on_show()
+    {
+        $descriptions = [
+            '<p><br></p>',
+            '<p><br><br><br><br></p>',
+            '<p><br><br><br></p><h1><br><br><br><br><br></h1>',
+        ];
+        $book = $this->entities->book();
+        $this->asEditor();
+
+        foreach ($descriptions as $descriptionTestCase) {
+            $book->description_html = $descriptionTestCase;
+            $book->save();
+
+            $resp = $this->get($book->getUrl());
+            $html = $this->withHtml($resp);
+            $descriptionHtml = $html->getInnerHtml('.book-content > div.text-muted:first-child');
+            $this->assertEquals('<p></p>', $descriptionHtml);
+        }
+    }
 }