Recipe browser shows confusing zero-count categories with no explanation #106

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-04-18 09:13:14 -07:00 by pyr0ball · 0 comments

pyr0ball commented

2026-04-18 09:13:14 -07:00

Owner

Summary

The recipe browser shows all categories with (0) recipe counts and then displays "No recipes found in this category." when a category is selected. There is no message explaining why, which is confusing to users.

Steps to reproduce

Open Recipes tab → Browse
Select any domain (Cuisine, Meal Type, etc.)
All category buttons show 0 counts
Click any category → "No recipes found in this category."

Expected

Either: categories show accurate recipe counts, or when all counts are 0 a clear message is shown (e.g. "Recipe library not available" or "No recipes match this category").

Actual

User sees category buttons like "Italian (0)", "Mexican (0)" etc. and a dead-end empty state with no guidance.

Root cause

This is a symptom of issue #102 (corpus not seeded in cloud DBs) but also a standalone UX issue. Even if the corpus were present, the current UI has no fallback for an empty browse result at the domain level.

Fix

Fix the underlying corpus issue (#102)
Additionally: in RecipeBrowserPanel.vue, if all recipe_count values are 0 after loading categories, show a friendly message instead of rendering empty category buttons. Consider: "Recipe library is still loading — check back soon." or suppress the Browse tab until data is available.

## Summary The recipe browser shows all categories with `(0)` recipe counts and then displays "No recipes found in this category." when a category is selected. There is no message explaining why, which is confusing to users. ## Steps to reproduce 1. Open Recipes tab → Browse 2. Select any domain (Cuisine, Meal Type, etc.) 3. All category buttons show `0` counts 4. Click any category → "No recipes found in this category." ## Expected Either: categories show accurate recipe counts, or when all counts are 0 a clear message is shown (e.g. "Recipe library not available" or "No recipes match this category"). ## Actual User sees category buttons like "Italian (0)", "Mexican (0)" etc. and a dead-end empty state with no guidance. ## Root cause This is a symptom of issue #102 (corpus not seeded in cloud DBs) but also a standalone UX issue. Even if the corpus were present, the current UI has no fallback for an empty browse result at the domain level. ## Fix 1. Fix the underlying corpus issue (#102) 2. Additionally: in `RecipeBrowserPanel.vue`, if all `recipe_count` values are 0 after loading categories, show a friendly message instead of rendering empty category buttons. Consider: `"Recipe library is still loading — check back soon."` or suppress the Browse tab until data is available.