From e89bd3ea923cd9d1e33ff1be3c94dc6d838837e0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andrew Morgan <1342360+anoadragon453@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2020 18:01:09 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Improve error messages of non-str displayname/avatar_url
 (#8705)

This PR fixes two things:

* Corrects the copy/paste error of telling the client their displayname is wrong when they are submitting an `avatar_url`.
* Returns a `M_INVALID_PARAM` instead of `M_UNKNOWN` for non-str type parameters.

Reported by @t3chguy.
---
 changelog.d/8705.misc       | 1 +
 synapse/handlers/profile.py | 8 ++++++--
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 changelog.d/8705.misc

diff --git a/changelog.d/8705.misc b/changelog.d/8705.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1189464a02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/8705.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Improve the error returned when a non-string displayname or avatar_url is used when updating a user's profile.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/synapse/handlers/profile.py b/synapse/handlers/profile.py
index 14348faaf3..74a1ddd780 100644
--- a/synapse/handlers/profile.py
+++ b/synapse/handlers/profile.py
@@ -189,7 +189,9 @@ class ProfileHandler(BaseHandler):
                 )
 
         if not isinstance(new_displayname, str):
-            raise SynapseError(400, "Invalid displayname")
+            raise SynapseError(
+                400, "'displayname' must be a string", errcode=Codes.INVALID_PARAM
+            )
 
         if len(new_displayname) > MAX_DISPLAYNAME_LEN:
             raise SynapseError(
@@ -273,7 +275,9 @@ class ProfileHandler(BaseHandler):
                 )
 
         if not isinstance(new_avatar_url, str):
-            raise SynapseError(400, "Invalid displayname")
+            raise SynapseError(
+                400, "'avatar_url' must be a string", errcode=Codes.INVALID_PARAM
+            )
 
         if len(new_avatar_url) > MAX_AVATAR_URL_LEN:
             raise SynapseError(