Certificates are not Generating

[Venkatesh-Dayani23]

Hi Team,
Recently we have upgraded to Sunbird 5.1.0 after the upgrade the Certificates are not generating. Below are the error logs.

certificatesign error logs

Credential template loaded from cache │
│ SyntaxError: Unexpected token s in JSON at position 0 │
│ at JSON.parse () │
│ at generateCredentials (/app/src/services/signerService.js:41:33) │
│ at generateCredentialsRoute (/app/src/routes/signerController.js:27:18) │
│ at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5) │
│ at async Server. (/app/main.js:17:32)

registry service logs

Caused by: dev.sunbirdrc.registry.exception.SignatureException$UnreachableException: Unable to reach service: 500 Internal Server E │
│ rror: [{"error": "Internal Server Error", "message": Unexpected token s in JSON at position 0}] │
│ at dev.sunbirdrc.registry.service.impl.SignatureServiceImpl.sign(SignatureServiceImpl.java:96) │
│ at dev.sunbirdrc.registry.service.impl.RegistryServiceImpl.generateCredentials(RegistryServiceImpl.java:253) │
│ at dev.sunbirdrc.registry.service.impl.RegistryServiceImpl.addEntity(RegistryServiceImpl.java:197) │
│ at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor80.invoke(Unknown Source) │
│ at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) │
│ at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) │
│ at org.springframework.aop.support.AopUtils.invokeJoinpointUsingReflection(AopUtils.java:344) │
│ at org.springframework.aop.framework.JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(JdkDynamicAopProxy.java:205) │
│ at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy97.addEntity(Unknown Source) │
│ at dev.sunbirdrc.registry.helper.RegistryHelper.addEntity(RegistryHelper.java:253) │
│ ... 66 common frames omitted

cc: @raghupathiguduri

[Venkatesh-Dayani23]

@vinukumar-vs Can you help on this issue ?

[Venkatesh-Dayani23]

@amitpriyadarshi
Can you help on this ?

[Mothukuri-venu]

Hi Venkatesh,
The issue looks like it is coming from the certificate-sign service while parsing the credential template.
The key error is:

SyntaxError: Unexpected token s in JSON at position 0
at JSON.parse()
at generateCredentials (/app/src/services/signerService.js:41:33)

This means the signer service is expecting a valid JSON credential template, but it is receiving invalid JSON content. Since the error starts after loading the template from cache:

Credential template loaded from cache

the possible causes are:

1. Invalid credential template stored in cache
   • The cached template may be corrupted or stored as a string that is not valid JSON.
   • Try clearing the credential template cache and restart the certificate-sign service.
2. Credential template format changed after upgrade
   • After upgrading to Sunbird RC 5.1.0, verify that all credential templates are compatible with the new version.
   • Re-import/update the templates if they were created in an older version.
3. Check the template content
   • The character s at JSON position 0 usually means the service received something like:

     schema...
     

     or another plain string instead of:

     {
       "type": "...",
       "credentialSubject": {}
     }

   • Please check the exact response/template returned from the registry or cache.
4. Verify configuration between services
   • Ensure the certificate-sign service URL configured in the registry service is pointing to the correct upgraded service.
   • Confirm both registry and certificate-sign services are running on compatible versions.
     Suggested troubleshooting steps:

# Restart certificate-sign service after clearing cache
docker restart <certificate-sign-container>
# Check service logs
docker logs -f <certificate-sign-container>

If the issue continues, please share:

• The credential template JSON being used.
• Whether the upgrade was done with database migration scripts.
• The deployment method (Docker/Kubernetes).
• The certificate-sign service version.
  The registry error is only a downstream failure; the actual root cause is the invalid JSON received by the signer service.