From f06da3164c7b5d6ce63a4359aae640da7f0c760c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shannon Haughton <106977606+shannonhaughton@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:10 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/6] Upversion news

---
 NEWS.md | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e66c327..a51df9d 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# docorator (development version)
+
 # docorator 0.7.0
 Improvements
 * Added Word (.docx) output support with the new render_docx() engine. (#97)

From 4ee8857b02a683eb531c31d1b4836855e9fb9bb2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shannon Haughton <106977606+shannonhaughton@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:01:02 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/6] Update DESCRIPTION

---
 DESCRIPTION | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 0f2f8f5..296f303 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: docorator
 Title: Docorate (Decorate + Output) Displays
-Version: 0.7.0
+Version: 0.7.0.9000
 Authors@R: 
     c(
       person(given = "Shannon", family = "Haughton", email = "shannon.l.haughton@gsk.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),

From ed1c27a97e4ade91aef3bd3309e335263e502b40 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shannon Haughton <shannon.l.haughton@gsk.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:38:24 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 3/6] dont allow null displays

---
 R/docorate.R                   |  1 +
 R/utils.R                      | 13 +++++++++++++
 tests/testthat/test_docorate.R | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 32 insertions(+)

diff --git a/R/docorate.R b/R/docorate.R
index 2cdd345..ba1b8b6 100644
--- a/R/docorate.R
+++ b/R/docorate.R
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ as_docorator <- function(
   # check inputs
   check_fancyhdr(header, chr_ok = TRUE)
   check_fancyhdr(footer)
+  check_display(x)
 
   # prep displays for render
   x <- prep_display(
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 6c9441c..b20ef99 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -346,4 +346,17 @@ prep_display <- function(x, fig_dim = c(5,8), convert_ggplot = TRUE, fontsize =
   )
   
   x
+}
+
+#' Check that the display object is not empty
+#' @param x object passed to `as_docorator`
+#' @noRd
+#'
+check_display <- function(x) {
+  if(is.null(x) || (identical(class(x), "list") && length(x) == 0)) {
+    cli::cli_abort(
+      "The {.arg {rlang::caller_arg(x)}} argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.",
+      call = rlang::caller_env()
+    )
+  }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R b/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R
index 4696f5c..c586899 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R
@@ -90,3 +90,21 @@ test_that("Create docorator object without display_name errors",{
 
 
 })
+
+test_that("Create docorator object with invalid display errors",{
+
+  expect_error(as_docorator(
+    x = list(),
+    display_name = "empty_list",
+    save_object = FALSE
+  ),
+  "The `x` argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.")
+
+  expect_error(as_docorator(
+    x = NULL,
+    display_name = "null_object",
+    save_object = FALSE
+  ),
+  "The `x` argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.")
+
+})

From 36c7e7f67629255806ef04079c6e411aa792458e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shannon Haughton <shannon.l.haughton@gsk.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:39:34 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 4/6] news

---
 NEWS.md | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index a51df9d..0513344 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 # docorator (development version)
+Improvements
+* Check that display objects are not empty before processing with as_docorator (#125)
 
 # docorator 0.7.0
 Improvements

From 2008d5486eb4ea8e5008fe53b7e18f5dd4e9058b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shannon Haughton <106977606+shannonhaughton@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:19:24 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 5/6] Apply suggestions from code review

Co-authored-by: Shannon Haughton <106977606+shannonhaughton@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 R/utils.R | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index b20ef99..57698df 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ prep_display <- function(x, fig_dim = c(5,8), convert_ggplot = TRUE, fontsize =
 #' @noRd
 #'
 check_display <- function(x) {
-  if(is.null(x) || (identical(class(x), "list") && length(x) == 0)) {
+  if(rlang::is_empty(x))) {
     cli::cli_abort(
       "The {.arg {rlang::caller_arg(x)}} argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.",
       call = rlang::caller_env()

From cad03774059e05640812397a0c8124231dcff992 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shannon Haughton <106977606+shannonhaughton@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:52:21 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 6/6] Apply suggestion from @shannonhaughton

---
 R/utils.R | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 57698df..3abd94a 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ prep_display <- function(x, fig_dim = c(5,8), convert_ggplot = TRUE, fontsize =
 #' @noRd
 #'
 check_display <- function(x) {
-  if(rlang::is_empty(x))) {
+  if(rlang::is_empty(x)) {
     cli::cli_abort(
       "The {.arg {rlang::caller_arg(x)}} argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.",
       call = rlang::caller_env()