06/08 Fix inspection photo issues

app/api/inspections.py

@@ -34,6 +34,27 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 bp = Blueprint('api_inspections', __name__)
 
 _ALLOWED_ROLES = {'admin', 'director', 'inspector', 'project_manager'}
+
+
+def _merge_form_data(existing: dict, incoming: dict) -> dict:
+    """Merge incoming form_data into existing, preserving file paths.
+
+    New non-empty values always win.  The one exception: an empty string
+    coming from the client will NOT overwrite an existing server-side upload
+    path (any value that starts with 'uploads/').  This protects photo paths
+    stored during an earlier POST from being silently blanked when the iOS
+    sends a final PATCH whose form_data was rebuilt without re-including the
+    already-uploaded paths.
+    """
+    merged = dict(existing)
+    for k, v in incoming.items():
+        existing_v = merged.get(k)
+        if (not v
+                and isinstance(existing_v, str)
+                and existing_v.startswith('uploads/')):
+            continue          # keep the saved photo path
+        merged[k] = v
+    return merged
 _UUID_RE = re.compile(
     r'^[0-9a-f]{8}-?[0-9a-f]{4}-?[0-9a-f]{4}-?[0-9a-f]{4}-?[0-9a-f]{12}$',
     re.IGNORECASE,
@@ -424,7 +445,10 @@ def update_inspection(inspection_id):
             except (json.JSONDecodeError, TypeError):
                 existing_notes = {}
         if 'form_data' in data:
-            existing_notes['_form_data'] = data['form_data']
+            existing_notes['_form_data'] = _merge_form_data(
+                existing_notes.get('_form_data') or {},
+                data['form_data'] or {},
+            )
         if 'notes' in data:
             existing_notes['_inspector_notes'] = data['notes']
         inspection.notes = json.dumps(existing_notes)