I've already submitted this as a request. It's logged under PMT-1751
Summary of the enhancement? Data is not stored consistently in Zuora. A field that has a NULL value in it when the record is created will be changed to empty string '' when that record is updated via the Zuora UI even if that field's value isn't explicitly being changed.
What is the business problem? The problem with this data inconsistency is that ZOQL treats NULL and '' as distinct values (which is fine, although Salesforce treats them as the same in SOQL). We have custom integrations with Zuora that use the SOAP API to make ZOQL calls and it makes it difficult to find records in the Zuora database when we are looking for records with "empty" values (NULL or ''). Since the ZOQL language is also limited with it's ability to use AND and OR statements together we end up having to make 2 separate calls. One to find records meeting a certain criteria and with a NULL value in a particular field and then another almost identical call but with '' in that particular field.
What is the business impact? We have to implement inefficient code to find the records we are looking for.
Is there a workaround or is the customer blocked? If there is a workaround, what is it? Is the customer willing to apply this workaround? The workaround currently is to have two different ZOQL calls.
What is the proposed solution (if available)? A solution would be to treat NULL and '' as the same value in ZOQL queries (or perhaps have that be an option to choose in the QueryRequest) or to preserve NULL values when records are edited through Zuora UI.
