diff --git a/test/integration/api/datasets.js b/test/integration/api/datasets.js
index 067dd4926..8f2b2ec73 100644
--- a/test/integration/api/datasets.js
+++ b/test/integration/api/datasets.js
@@ -2865,7 +2865,7 @@ describe('datasets and entities', () => {
         });
     }));
 
-    // cb#551 issue, <entity/> tag has no children
+    // c#551 issue, <entity/> tag has no children
     it('should allow update where no label or no properties are updated', testService(async (service, container) => {
       const asAlice = await service.login('alice');
 
@@ -2930,7 +2930,7 @@ describe('datasets and entities', () => {
         });
     }));
 
-    // cb#552 issue, can't add label to entity update form that previously didnt have label
+    // c#552 issue, can't add label to entity update form that previously didnt have label
     it('should allow update where no label or no properties are updated', testService(async (service) => {
       const asAlice = await service.login('alice');
 
@@ -2981,8 +2981,8 @@ describe('datasets and entities', () => {
         .expect(200);
     }));
 
-    // cb#553 issue, forms with and without entity label show different fields
-    // (because entity has type 'unknown' instead of 'structure')
+    // c#553 issue, forms with and without entity label show different fields
+    // (because entity was previously type 'unknown' instead of 'structure')
     it('should allow update where no label or no properties are updated', testService(async (service) => {
       const asAlice = await service.login('alice');
 
diff --git a/test/unit/data/dataset.js b/test/unit/data/dataset.js
index 81c5c95dd..32285cbce 100644
--- a/test/unit/data/dataset.js
+++ b/test/unit/data/dataset.js
@@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ describe('parsing dataset from entity block', () => {
       should.not.exist(fields[2].propertyName);
     }));
 
-  it('should figure out type of entity block from form def', async () => {
+  it('should alawys parse entity field as type structure', async () => {
     const form = (entityBlock) => `<?xml version="1.0"?>
       <h:html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms" xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:jr="http://openrosa.org/javarosa" xmlns:entities="http://www.opendatakit.org/xforms">
         <h:head>
@@ -229,72 +229,51 @@ describe('parsing dataset from entity block', () => {
         </h:head>
       </h:html>`;
 
+    // Entity block has no children
     const noChildEntity = '<entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion=""/>';
     await getFormFields(form(noChildEntity)).then((fields) => {
-      fields[0].name.should.equal('age');
-      fields[0].path.should.equal('/age');
-      fields[0].type.should.equal('int');
-
-      fields[1].name.should.equal('meta');
-      fields[1].path.should.equal('/meta');
-      fields[1].type.should.equal('structure');
-
       fields[2].name.should.equal('entity');
       fields[2].path.should.equal('/meta/entity');
       fields[2].type.should.equal('structure');
     });
 
+    // Entity block has no children
     const emptyEntity = '<entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion=""></entity>';
     await getFormFields(form(emptyEntity)).then((fields) => {
-      fields[0].name.should.equal('age');
-      fields[0].path.should.equal('/age');
-      fields[0].type.should.equal('int');
-
-      fields[1].name.should.equal('meta');
-      fields[1].path.should.equal('/meta');
-      fields[1].type.should.equal('structure');
+      fields[2].name.should.equal('entity');
+      fields[2].path.should.equal('/meta/entity');
+      fields[2].type.should.equal('structure');
+    });
 
+    // Entity block has whitespace
+    const emptyEntityWhitespace = '<entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion="">  </entity>';
+    await getFormFields(form(emptyEntityWhitespace)).then((fields) => {
       fields[2].name.should.equal('entity');
       fields[2].path.should.equal('/meta/entity');
       fields[2].type.should.equal('structure');
     });
 
+    // Entity block is not empty (most common case)
     const nonEmptyEntity = '<entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion=""><label/></entity>';
     await getFormFields(form(nonEmptyEntity)).then((fields) => {
-      fields[0].name.should.equal('age');
-      fields[0].path.should.equal('/age');
-      fields[0].type.should.equal('int');
-
-      fields[1].name.should.equal('meta');
-      fields[1].path.should.equal('/meta');
-      fields[1].type.should.equal('structure');
-
       fields[2].name.should.equal('entity');
       fields[2].path.should.equal('/meta/entity');
-      fields[2].type.should.equal('structure'); // is type structure because it contains a child
+      fields[2].type.should.equal('structure');
 
       fields[3].name.should.equal('label');
       fields[3].path.should.equal('/meta/entity/label');
-      fields[3].type.should.equal('unknown'); // should possibly be something other than unknown (unknown bc no binding)
+      fields[3].type.should.equal('unknown'); // label is unknown because there is no child and no bind
     });
 
-    const nonEmptyLabel = '<entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion=""><label></label></entity>';
+    const nonEmptyLabel = '<entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion=""><label>foo</label></entity>';
     await getFormFields(form(nonEmptyLabel)).then((fields) => {
-      fields[0].name.should.equal('age');
-      fields[0].path.should.equal('/age');
-      fields[0].type.should.equal('int');
-
-      fields[1].name.should.equal('meta');
-      fields[1].path.should.equal('/meta');
-      fields[1].type.should.equal('structure');
-
       fields[2].name.should.equal('entity');
       fields[2].path.should.equal('/meta/entity');
       fields[2].type.should.equal('structure'); // is type structure because it contains a child
 
       fields[3].name.should.equal('label');
       fields[3].path.should.equal('/meta/entity/label');
-      fields[3].type.should.equal('unknown'); // should possibly be something other than unknown (unknown bc no children and no binding)
+      fields[3].type.should.equal('unknown'); // type unknown because no child node and no bind
     });
   });
 });
diff --git a/test/unit/data/submission.js b/test/unit/data/submission.js
index f342aa8f6..986f8869b 100644
--- a/test/unit/data/submission.js
+++ b/test/unit/data/submission.js
@@ -66,9 +66,10 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
       should.config.checkProtoEql = true;
     });
 
+    // true, false (entity has attributes and is included. other fields like /meta is structural but has no attributes so it is not included)
     it('should include structural fields with attributes', (done) => {
       fieldsFor(testData.forms.simpleEntity).then((fields) =>
-        submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, testData.instances.simpleEntity.one, true).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
+        submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, testData.instances.simpleEntity.one, true, false).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
           result.should.eql([
             { field: new MockField({ order: 4, name: 'entity', path: '/meta/entity', type: 'structure', attrs: {
               create: '1',
@@ -84,9 +85,10 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
         })));
     });
 
+    // false, false (entity has attributes but it is structural so not included)
     it('should not include structural fields', (done) => {
       fieldsFor(testData.forms.simpleEntity).then((fields) =>
-        submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, testData.instances.simpleEntity.one, false).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
+        submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, testData.instances.simpleEntity.one, false, false).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
           result.should.eql([
             { field: new MockField({ order: 5, name: 'label', path: '/meta/entity/label', type: 'unknown' }), text: 'Alice (88)' },
             { field: new MockField({ order: 0, name: 'name', path: '/name', type: 'string', propertyName: 'first_name' }), text: 'Alice' },
@@ -97,6 +99,7 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
         })));
     });
 
+    // true, true (entity has attributes, age is empty)
     it('should include structural elements with attributes and empty nodes', (done) => {
       fieldsFor(testData.forms.simpleEntity).then((fields) =>
         submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, testData.instances.simpleEntity.one.replace('<age>88</age>', '<age></age>'), true, true).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
@@ -115,57 +118,21 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
         })));
     });
 
-    it('should not return structural nodes when they have no attributes', async () => {
-      const form = `<?xml version="1.0"?>
-      <h:html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms" xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:jr="http://openrosa.org/javarosa" xmlns:entities="http://www.opendatakit.org/xforms">
-        <h:head>
-          <model entities:entities-version="2023.1.0">
-            <instance>
-              <data id="brokenForm" orx:version="1.0">
-                <person>
-                  <age/>
-                </person>
-                <meta>
-                  <entity>
-                    <label/>
-                  </entity>
-                </meta>
-              </data>
-              <other/>
-            </instance>
-            <bind nodeset="/data/person/age" type="int" entities:saveto="age"/>
-          </model>
-        </h:head>
-      </h:html>`;
-
-      const fields = await fieldsFor(form);
-      fields.length.should.equal(5);
-
-      const sub = `<data xmlns:jr="http://openrosa.org/javarosa" xmlns:entities="http://www.opendatakit.org/xforms" id="brokenForm" version="1.0">
-        <meta>
-          <instanceID>one</instanceID>
-          <orx:instanceName>one</orx:instanceName>
-          <entity>
-            <label>foo</label>
-          </entity>
-        </meta>
-        <person>
-          <age>88</age>
-        </person>
-      </data>`;
-
-      await submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, sub, true, true).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
-        result.should.eql([
-          // /meta/entity field is not present because it has no attribtues, which means it isn't used later by parseSubmissionXml
-          // which is good, because it wont try to access non-existent entity attributes.
-          // the entity system data stuff will be set to null and will log an appropriate error.
-          { field: new MockField({ order: 4, name: 'label', path: '/meta/entity/label', type: 'unknown' }), text: 'foo' },
-          // /person is also not included because it is a structural node with no attributes. but it's child is included.
-          { field: new MockField({ order: 1, name: 'age', path: '/person/age', type: 'int', propertyName: 'age' }), text: '88' },
-        ]);
-      }));
+    // false, true (age is empty here. other fields like name and hometown are not empty and are returned as normal.)
+    it('should include empty nodes but no structural nodes', (done) => {
+      fieldsFor(testData.forms.simpleEntity).then((fields) =>
+        submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, testData.instances.simpleEntity.one.replace('<age>88</age>', '<age></age>'), false, true).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
+          result.should.eql([
+            { field: new MockField({ order: 5, name: 'label', path: '/meta/entity/label', type: 'unknown' }), text: 'Alice (88)' },
+            { field: new MockField({ order: 0, name: 'name', path: '/name', type: 'string', propertyName: 'first_name' }), text: 'Alice' },
+            { field: new MockField({ order: 1, name: 'age', path: '/age', type: 'int', propertyName: 'age' }), text: '' },
+            { field: new MockField({ order: 2, name: 'hometown', path: '/hometown', type: 'string' }), text: 'Chicago' }
+          ]);
+          done();
+        })));
     });
 
+    // related to issue c#551 where <entity> block had no children so extracting the attributes was breaking.
     it('should handle attributes on entity tag with no children', async () => {
       const form = `<?xml version="1.0"?>
       <h:html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms" xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:jr="http://openrosa.org/javarosa" xmlns:entities="http://www.opendatakit.org/xforms">
@@ -174,6 +141,9 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
             <instance>
               <data id="brokenForm" orx:version="1.0">
                 <age/>
+                <location>
+                  <hometown></hometown>
+                </location>
                 <meta>
                   <entity dataset="people" id="" create="" update="" baseVersion="" />
                 </meta>
@@ -181,13 +151,15 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
               <other/>
             </instance>
             <bind nodeset="/data/age" type="int" entities:saveto="age"/>
+            <bind nodeset="/data/location/hometown" type="string" entities:saveto="hometown"/>
           </model>
         </h:head>
       </h:html>`;
 
+      // This is all the fields in the form including structural fields
       const fields = await fieldsFor(form);
-      fields.map(f => f.name).should.eql(['age', 'meta', 'entity']);
-      fields.map(f => f.type).should.eql(['int', 'structure', 'structure']);
+      fields.map(f => f.name).should.eql(['age', 'location', 'hometown', 'meta', 'entity']);
+      fields.map(f => f.type).should.eql(['int', 'structure', 'string', 'structure', 'structure']);
 
       const sub = `<data xmlns:jr="http://openrosa.org/javarosa" xmlns:entities="http://www.opendatakit.org/xforms" id="brokenForm" version="1.0">
         <meta>
@@ -196,17 +168,24 @@ describe('submission field streamer', () => {
           <entity baseVersion="1" dataset="people" id="12345678-1234-4123-8234-123456789abc" update="1"/>
         </meta>
         <age>88</age>
+        <location>
+          <hometown></hometown>
+        </location>
       </data>`;
 
+      // This is where we use the full field list above to pull out only the fields that are relevant to entity parsing
+      // - <entity> with its attribuets
+      // - all leaf nodes even if they are empty
       await submissionXmlToFieldStream(fields, sub, true, true).pipe(toObjects((error, result) => {
         result.should.eql([
-          { field: new MockField({ order: 2, name: 'entity', path: '/meta/entity', type: 'structure', attrs: {
+          { field: new MockField({ order: 4, name: 'entity', path: '/meta/entity', type: 'structure', attrs: {
             update: '1',
             baseVersion: '1',
             dataset: 'people',
             id: '12345678-1234-4123-8234-123456789abc'
           } }), text: null },
           { field: new MockField({ order: 0, name: 'age', path: '/age', type: 'int', propertyName: 'age' }), text: '88' },
+          { field: new MockField({ order: 2, name: 'hometown', path: '/location/hometown', type: 'string', propertyName: 'hometown' }), text: '' },
         ]);
       }));
     });