Default name now provided for menu items and modifiers that have blank names

If a menu item or modifier has a blank name, it can cause menu ingestion failures for integrations that have not accounted for this possibility. To avoid problems caused by missing name values, the Toast platform now detects menu items and modifiers that have a blank name and supplies a default name.

A menu item has a blank name if the name value of its MenuItem object is either an empty string or null. When this happens, the menus API updates the name value to the string Missing name in the returned menus data.

A modifier has a blank name if both its item reference name and its modifier override name are empty strings or null. When this happens, the menus API updates the name value of the ModifierOption object to the string Missing name in the returned menus data. For information on modifier item references, see Understanding a modifier item reference.

Note that, while this solution allows menu ingestion to proceed without failure, it does allow a menu item or modifier with the name Missing name to appear in a restaurant’s menu, creating potential confusion for the guest and for the restaurant. Also, the menus API only updates the returned data. It does not update the menu item or modifier in the Toast database, meaning the name will still be blank when looking at the menu item or modifier in Toast Web.

To fix the issue in Toast Web, you identify the parent menu entity for the menu item or modifier, view its details page in Toast Web, and then locate and fix the item or modifier with the blank name.