[HOLD for payment 2023-08-02] [$1000] The cursor position is not at the end of the message when editing the welcome message

[kavimuru]

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email contributors@expensify.com to request to join our Slack channel!

---

Action Performed:

1. Create a room
2. Go to the room details > settings and select "Welcome Message"
3. Enter a message and click on "Save"
4. Once again, click on the welcome message for editing

Expected Result:

The cursor position should be at the end of the message when editing the welcome message

Actual Result:

The cursor is at the start of the message

Workaround:

Can the user still use Expensify without this being fixed? Have you informed them of the workaround?

Platforms:

Which of our officially supported platforms is this issue occurring on?

• Android / native
• Android / Chrome
• iOS / native
• iOS / Safari
• MacOS / Chrome / Safari
• MacOS / Desktop

Version Number: 1.3.32-5
Reproducible in staging?: y
Reproducible in production?: y
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Notes/Photos/Videos: Any additional supporting documentation

screen-recording-2023-06-20-at-24757-pm_rWeBf4YW.mp4

Recording.5122.mp4

Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @ayazhussain79
Slack conversation: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C049HHMV9SM/p1687255221337649

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01c431cd4d3b60ebff
• Upwork Job ID: 1674581546420617216
• Last Price Increase: 2023-07-14

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @sakluger (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details.

[melvin-bot]

Bug0 Triage Checklist (Main S/O)

• This "bug" occurs on a supported platform (ensure Platforms in OP are ✅)
• This bug is not a duplicate report (check E/App issues and #expensify-bugs)
  • If it is, comment with a link to the original report, close the issue and add any novel details to the original issue instead
• This bug is reproducible using the reproduction steps in the OP. S/O
  • If the reproduction steps are clear and you're unable to reproduce the bug, check with the reporter and QA first, then close the issue.
  • If the reproduction steps aren't clear and you determine the correct steps, please update the OP.
• This issue is filled out as thoroughly and clearly as possible
  • Pay special attention to the title, results, platforms where the bug occurs, and if the bug happens on staging/production.
• I have reviewed and subscribed to the linked Slack conversation to ensure Slack/Github stay in sync

[chiragxarora]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

The cursor position is not at the end of the message when editing the welcome message

What is the root cause of that problem?

Root cause of the issue is that we have not calculated the cursor position by selection property which by default is at zero. This leads to the rendering of cursor at the beginning when we focus it using the ref.

App/src/pages/ReportWelcomeMessagePage.js

Lines 69 to 80 in 820fa93

	<TextInput
	inputID="welcomeMessage"
	label={props.translate('welcomeMessagePage.welcomeMessage')}
	multiline
	numberOfLines={10}
	maxLength={CONST.MAX_COMMENT_LENGTH}
	ref={(el) => (welcomeMessageInputRef.current = el)}
	value={welcomeMessage}
	onChangeText={handleWelcomeMessageChange}
	autoCapitalize="none"
	textAlignVertical="top"
	/>

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

First of all we need a state in the component to keep the track of caret position which we can use to update the selection.
We could create a selection state using react hooks like this:

const [selection, setSelection] = useState({start: n, end: n});

Now we need to set an initial positon of caret from where the cursor will start when open the welcome message dalogue.
For this, we already have a state called welcomeMessage which is storing the previous welcome message received from props. So we can use that to set initial caret position.

Now we have a state object which keeps the initial caret position, so now while editing the welcome message when user clicks anywhere inside the <TextInput/> to change the caret position, we can update our state by using onSelectionChange prop. This way we will always keep track of latest caret position.

And now since we have added a util called focusAndUpdateMultiline, we can directly use that once the transition ends and ref is initialised

`onEntryTransitionEnd={() => if(inputRef && inputRef.current) focusAndUpdateMultiline(inputRef.current);}

UPDATE: (auto focus on reload)

Focus mechanism and cursor aren't set on reload because the TextInput is not mounted till the time when we call our focus method.
In order to solve this, we should go for a more logical approach rather than using timeouts.

We should run a side-effect when our <TextInput/> has mounted and for this we can track the changes happening on our inputRef.current object.

useEffect(() => {
    if(welcomeMessageInputRef.current) {
        // now focus
    }
}, [welcomeMessageInputRef.current]);

Final code changes

function ReportWelcomeMessagePage(props) {
 ...................
  useEffect(() => {
    if(welcomeMessageInputRef.current) {
        focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange(welcomeMessageInputRef.current);
    }
  }, [welcomeMessageInputRef.current]);
 ...................
  <TextInput
      inputID="welcomeMessage"
      label={props.translate('welcomeMessagePage.welcomeMessage')}
      multiline
      numberOfLines={10}
      maxLength={CONST.MAX_COMMENT_LENGTH}
      ref={(el) => (welcomeMessageInputRef.current = el)}
      value={welcomeMessage}
      onChangeText={handleWelcomeMessageChange}
      autoCapitalize="none"
      textAlignVertical="top"
  />

NOTE: no other proposal proposed this solution till the time of final edit

Updated Results

bandicam.2023-07-03.22-12-29-395.mp4

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

We can achieve the similar results by using a callback hook too
Or
In the main solution, we can even omit the ref from dependent array after passing the welcomeMessageInputRef directly to the ref prop

[sakluger]

@Expensify/design do you think this is a bug? I'm leaning towards yes, but wanted a second opinion.

[shawnborton]

Wow, what a find. Yeah, I guess it makes sense that the cursor starts off at the end as opposed to the beginning.

[sakluger]

Alright let's do this thing. Adding the external label.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01c431cd4d3b60ebff

[melvin-bot]

Current assignee @sakluger is eligible for the External assigner, not assigning anyone new.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @mollfpr (External)

[hoangzinh]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

The cursor position is not at the end of the message when editing the welcome message

What is the root cause of that problem?

In the focus logic when the Report welcome message loaded, we just call focus function:

App/src/pages/ReportWelcomeMessagePage.js

Lines 51 to 56 in 0bbf3fc

	onEntryTransitionEnd={() => {
	if (!welcomeMessageInputRef.current) {
	return;
	}
	welcomeMessageInputRef.current.focus();
	}}

It seems we forgot to set selection range to make the cursor position when the message has value like other places. I.e:

• Workspace invite messages
• Task description page

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

We can't do same things we did for Workspace invite message page here because when we visit by direct link, although onEntryTransitionEnd callback of ScreenWrapper is triggered, the inputRef is still null, sometime.

So my approach is:
I think the condition to focus on the Input is: when the screen animation end AND the inputRef is set. Currently, those 2 states are in 2 different components and different callbacks so we need to store those states in a same place, and trigger focus when those 2 states are true (or conditions are meet). In order to do that, I think about a custom hook, this hook will store those 2 states, and expose setters to set those 2 states to true when the ScreenWrapper onEntryTransitionEnd or Input ref setter callback

Code reference

const useFocusInputRangeWhenReady = (inputRef) => {
    const [isInputRefReady, setIsInputRefReady] = useState(false);
    const [didInputTransitionEnd, setDidInputTransitionEnd] = useState(false);

    useEffect(() => {
        if (!isInputRefReady || !didInputTransitionEnd) {
            return;
        }

        focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange(inputRef.current);
    }, [isInputRefReady, didInputTransitionEnd, inputRef]);

    return { setIsInputRefReady, setDidInputTransitionEnd}
}

• In ScreenWrapper onEntryTransitionEnd

onEntryTransitionEnd={() => {
    setDidInputTransitionEnd(true);
}}

• Input ref setter callback

ref={(el) => {
    welcomeMessageInputRef.current = el;
    setIsInputRefReady(Boolean(welcomeMessageInputRef.current));
}}

Recording result

Screen.Recording.2023-07-10.at.18.30.40.mov

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Alternative 1:
If we don't prefer custom hook or think it's complicated. I think about another option. My assumption is based on this as well:

I think the condition to focus on the Input is: when the screen animation end AND the inputRef is set

So need to put focus code in 2 places, and ensure in each place, the 2 conditions above match:

• Case 1: the inputRef is set before transition end: On onEntryTransitionEnd here, we need to replace this line by util focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange
• Case 2: the inputRef is set after transition end: We need to wrap those LOC into a function so that the ScreenWrapper can inject the props didScreenTransitionEnd same as here. Then in the ref Callback of input, we can check if the inputRef is just ready and didScreenTransitionEnd is true, then we will call util focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange. Code ref:

if (!welcomeMessageInputRef.current && el && didScreenTransitionEnd) {
    focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange(el);
}

Alternative 2:
If we don't care about the reload case, we can just do the same we did for Task description page by using this util focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange. This util will help us do 3 things: focus, set cursor at the end and automatically scroll the input field to the end for multiple line inputs.

We will use above util and replace for this line here

[fabOnReact]

I investigated the issue. Seems to be the expected behaviour of react-navigation.

• submitForm calls Report.updateWelcomeMessage
• updateWelcomeMessage calls Navigation.goBack (expo snack, expo-navigation-snack)
• Navigation.goBack unmounts the component and clears the state (value and selection)

https://reactnavigation.org/docs/navigation-lifecycle/#example-scenario
snack https://snack.expo.dev/@fabrizio.bertoglio/navigation-prop-reference-|-react-navigation
issue react-navigation/react-navigation#1953

[melvin-bot]

Looks like something related to react-navigation may have been mentioned in this issue discussion.

As a reminder, please make sure that all proposals are not workarounds and that any and all attempt to fix the issue holistically have been made before proceeding with a solution. Proposals to change our DeprecatedCustomActions.js files should not be accepted.

Feel free to drop a note in #expensify-open-source with any questions.

[shawnborton]

Not overdue, still looking at proposals.

[mollfpr]

@chiragxarora It has the same result as using focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange, so I want to keep using it.

@hoangzinh The input needs to be focused after refreshing the page.

[chiragxarora]

Actually at the time I wrote the proposal, this focusAndUpdateMultilineInputRange util wasn't there. Its added few days back, so I'll update my proposal according to that.

@mollfpr

[chiragxarora]

I've updated my proposal #21523 (comment) too for the reloading case, pls check @mollfpr

[hoangzinh]

@mollfpr I just updated my proposal #21523 (comment) to cover the case that you mentioned above.

[sakluger]

I just tested on staging and confirmed that this bug is still reproduceable. @danieldoglas do you agree that we should assign @hoangzinh?

[melvin-bot]

📣 @mollfpr 🎉 An offer has been automatically sent to your Upwork account for the Reviewer role 🎉 Thanks for contributing to the Expensify app!

Upwork job

[melvin-bot]

📣 @hoangzinh 🎉 An offer has been automatically sent to your Upwork account for the Contributor role 🎉 Thanks for contributing to the Expensify app!

Upwork job
Please accept the offer and leave a comment on the Github issue letting us know when we can expect a PR to be ready for review 🧑‍💻
Keep in mind: Code of Conduct | Contributing 📖

[melvin-bot]

📣 @ayazhussain79 We're missing your Upwork ID to automatically send you an offer for the Reporter role.
Once you apply to the Upwork job, your Upwork ID will be stored and you will be automatically hired for future jobs!

[jasperhuangg]

Yep, #22586 is unrelated to this issue, so we should continue with the triage process.

[hoangzinh]

@mollfpr @danieldoglas Thanks for accepting my proposal. The PR is ready #23162. Please help me review it. Thanks

[sakluger]

This one just got merged, thanks everyone! Looks like it was merged in 4 business days.

[melvin-bot]

Reviewing label has been removed, please complete the "BugZero Checklist".

[melvin-bot]

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 1.3.45-7 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• Fix the cursor position is not at the end of the message when editing the welcome message #23162

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2023-08-02. 🎊

After the hold period is over and BZ checklist items are completed, please complete any of the applicable payments for this issue, and check them off once done.

• External issue reporter
• Contributor that fixed the issue
• Contributor+ that helped on the issue and/or PR

For reference, here are some details about the assignees on this issue:

• @hoangzinh requires payment
• @mollfpr requires payment

As a reminder, here are the bonuses/penalties that should be applied for any External issue:

• Merged PR within 3 business days of assignment - 50% bonus
• Merged PR more than 9 business days after assignment - 50% penalty

[melvin-bot]

BugZero Checklist: The PR fixing this issue has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed:

• [@mollfpr] The PR that introduced the bug has been identified. Link to the PR:
• [@mollfpr] The offending PR has been commented on, pointing out the bug it caused and why, so the author and reviewers can learn from the mistake. Link to comment:
• [@mollfpr] A discussion in #expensify-bugs has been started about whether any other steps should be taken (e.g. updating the PR review checklist) in order to catch this type of bug sooner. Link to discussion:
• [@mollfpr] Determine if we should create a regression test for this bug.
• [@mollfpr] If we decide to create a regression test for the bug, please propose the regression test steps to ensure the same bug will not reach production again.
• [@sakluger] Link the GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon:

[mollfpr]

[@mollfpr] The PR that introduced the bug has been identified. Link to the PR:

#18662

[@mollfpr] The offending PR has been commented on, pointing out the bug it caused and why, so the author and reviewers can learn from the mistake. Link to comment:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/pull/18662/files#r1283428248

[@mollfpr] A discussion in #expensify-bugs has been started about whether any other steps should be taken (e.g. updating the PR review checklist) in order to catch this type of bug sooner. Link to discussion:

The regression test should be enough.

[@mollfpr] Determine if we should create a regression test for this bug.
[@mollfpr] If we decide to create a regression test for the bug, please propose the regression test steps to ensure the same bug will not reach production again.

On Web/mWeb

1. Create a room
2. Go to the room details > settings and select "Welcome Message"
3. Enter a message and click on "Save"
4. Once again, click on the welcome message for editing
5. Verify that the cursor position should be at the end of the message when editing the welcome message
6. Reload the page
7. Verify that the cursor position should be at the end of the message when editing the welcome message

On Desktop/Native apps

1. Create a room
2. Go to the room details > settings and select "Welcome Message"
3. Enter a message and click on "Save"
4. Once again, click on the welcome message for editing
5. Verify that the cursor position should be at the end of the message when editing the welcome message

[sakluger]

Summarizing payouts for this issue:

Bug reporter: @ayazhussain79 $250 (hired on Upwork)
Contributor: @hoangzinh $1000 (hired on Upwork)
Contributor+: @mollfpr $1000 (hired on Upwork)

Upwork job: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01c431cd4d3b60ebff

[sakluger]

@ayazhussain79 I forgot to send you an offer previously, sorry about that! I just sent you a contract through Upwork, please let me know once you have accepted the offer.

[ayazhussain79]

@sakluger offer accepted, Thank you

[sakluger]

Thanks @ayazhussain79!