Feature: Render markdown in thread header

[tienifr]

Details

Expected outcome for thread name in LHN:

• Only the first line of the message should display on the thread title with no trailing space

Expected outcome for thread header:

• Only the first line of the message should display on the thread title with no trailing space
• Markdown, if in a thread title, should display as markdown
  • Heading markdown should display as text only (no formatting)
  • Code fence should display as inline code

Fixed Issues

$ #22832
PROPOSAL: #22832 (comment)

Tests

1. Login with any account
2. Go to any report
3. Send a message with multiline code fence (3 backticks markdown)
4. Reply in thread
5. Verify that thread header displays as the expected outcome
   ====
6. Repeat step 2-5 with all supported markdowns: # Heading, Inline code, Link, Email, Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, > Quote, Mention user, Mention here.
7. Back to LHN, verify that thread's report name displays as expected outcome

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

NA

QA Steps

Expected outcome for thread header:

• Only the first line of the message should display on the thread title with no trailing space
• Markdown, if in a thread title, should display as markdown
  • Heading markdown should display as text only (no formatting)
  • Code fence should display as inline code

1. Login with any account
2. Go to any report
3. Send a message with multiline code fence (3 backticks markdown)
4. Reply in thread
5. Verify that thread header displays as the expected outcome
   ====
6. Repeat step 2-5 with all supported markdowns: # Heading, Inline code, Link, Email, Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, > Quote, Mention user, Mention here.
7. Back to LHN, verify that thread's report name displays as expected outcome

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
  • I added steps for local testing in the Tests section
  • I added steps for the expected offline behavior in the Offline steps section
  • I added steps for Staging and/or Production testing in the QA steps section
  • I added steps to cover failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
  • I tested this PR with a High Traffic account against the staging or production API to ensure there are no regressions (e.g. long loading states that impact usability).
• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I ran the tests on all platforms & verified they passed on:
  • Android / native
  • Android / Chrome
  • iOS / native
  • iOS / Safari
  • MacOS / Chrome / Safari
  • MacOS / Desktop
• I verified there are no console errors (if there's a console error not related to the PR, report it or open an issue for it to be fixed)
• I followed proper code patterns (see Reviewing the code)
  • I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick)
  • I verified that the left part of a conditional rendering a React component is a boolean and NOT a string, e.g. myBool && <MyComponent />.
  • I verified that comments were added to code that is not self explanatory
  • I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
  • I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
    • If any non-english text was added/modified, I verified the translation was requested/reviewed in #expensify-open-source and it was approved by an internal Expensify engineer. Link to Slack message:
  • I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
  • I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is approved by marketing by adding the Waiting for Copy label for a copy review on the original GH to get the correct copy.
  • I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
  • I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
• If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
• I followed the guidelines as stated in the Review Guidelines
• I tested other components that can be impacted by my changes (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar are working as expected)
• I verified all code is DRY (the PR doesn't include any logic written more than once, with the exception of tests)
• I verified any variables that can be defined as constants (ie. in CONST.js or at the top of the file that uses the constant) are defined as such
• I verified that if a function's arguments changed that all usages have also been updated correctly
• If a new component is created I verified that:
  • A similar component doesn't exist in the codebase
  • All props are defined accurately and each prop has a /** comment above it */
  • The file is named correctly
  • The component has a clear name that is non-ambiguous and the purpose of the component can be inferred from the name alone
  • The only data being stored in the state is data necessary for rendering and nothing else
    • Any internal methods bound to this are necessary to be bound (i.e. avoid this.submit = this.submit.bind(this); if this.submit is never passed to a component event handler like onClick)
  • All JSX used for rendering exists in the render method
  • The component has the minimum amount of code necessary for its purpose, and it is broken down into smaller components in order to separate concerns and functions
• If any new file was added I verified that:
  • The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
• If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
  • A similar style doesn't already exist
  • The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(themeColors.componentBG))
• If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
• If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
• If the PR modifies a component related to any of the existing Storybook stories, I tested and verified all stories for that component are still working as expected.
• If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
• If the main branch was merged into this PR after a review, I tested again and verified the outcome was still expected according to the Test steps.
• I have checked off every checkbox in the PR author checklist, including those that don't apply to this PR.

Screenshots/Videos

Web

Mobile Web - Chrome

Mobile Web - Safari

Desktop

iOS

Android

[melvin-bot]

@sobitneupane Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[tienifr]

I got a problem when using RenderHTML inside Text. So far I've found no way to pass numberOfLines to RenderHTML which makes the text un-truncated but hidden instead:

[sobitneupane]

@tienifr Any update?

[tienifr]

@sobitneupane Worked on Web:

Basically, I'll introduce a new custom tag thread-title and pass numberOfLines like this:

'thread-title': defaultHTMLElementModels.span.extend({
    reactNativeProps: {
        text: {numberOfLines: 1},
    },
}),

[tienifr]

Worked on native as well:

[sobitneupane]

I am yet to review all the cases. But initial tests are quite promising. Thanks for the work @tienifr

The header still overflows.

Screen.Recording.2023-08-23.at.16.03.21.mov

[sobitneupane]

@tienifr Since we are only using first line in the header, should we do the same in LHN as well? What do you think?

[sobitneupane]

Arrow on TaskPreview is overlapping with text.

[tienifr]

Update:

1. For quoted text, the hoisting process of react-native-render-html would automatically translate thread-title wrapper in a View when its children contained a View (blockquote is a View). That deactivated numberOfLines prop.
2. On native, we render the code block by truncating a series of Views, each corresponds to a word. Wrapping Views inside Text (thread-title wrapper) caused unexpected results.
3. Maybe same as ^.

I'll resolve those ASAP.

[tienifr]

Update: Found a solution. I'm curating the code changes. Will push the tonight.

[sobitneupane]

@tienifr Any update?

[tienifr]

Update: My new solution worked very well on native but failed on web. I think that's because I'm wrapping the thread title inside a View. Seperating platform-specific files might be the last resort.

[tienifr]

I'm still working on the fix for Web. Resolving one platform would cause failure for the others.

[sobitneupane]

@tienifr Let's focus on this issue. Can you please update where you are stuck now?

[sobitneupane]

What can we do to get this PR merged asap? We can open follow up PR for some implementations if it doesn't break anything.

[sobitneupane]

Any update @tienifr ?

[tienifr]

I'm still blocking on these issues #24574 (comment) where blockquote does not work properly. I found the root cause but no optimal solution had been found. If we want merging ASAP, I think we should exclude blockquote from thread-title and resolve in future PRs.

[sobitneupane]

I'm still blocking on these issues #24574 (comment) where blockquote does not work properly. I found the root cause but no optimal solution had been found. If we want merging ASAP, I think we should exclude blockquote from thread-title and resolve in future PRs.

@tienifr Yup. That sounds like a good idea. Please test it thoroughly at your end, update the screen recordings and let me know. Let's wrap this up before weekend.

[tienifr]

I'm testing again since there have been many changes to the report title logics.

[shawnborton]

Let us know when there are updated screenshots to review, thanks!

[shawnborton]

Actually... I'm kind of curious why we are even doing this in the first place. Going to head to the original issue to discuss.

[tienifr]

@shawnborton Working screenshots are in PR description.

[shawnborton]

Can you update them with the latest? They seem quite dated:

Either way, we are discussing in Slack and I think it might have been a mistake to allow for the markdown to appear in the report headers, especially with no clean way of truncating things.

So let's pause for a moment until we get clarification from @JmillsExpensify, but I think we should keep the report headers as just our normal app text style.

[shawnborton]

What's the latest here? Can we just close this one?

[shawnborton]

Friendly bump @tienifr and @sobitneupane - what's the status with this one?

[sobitneupane]

@shawnborton Looks like we don't want to make the change introduced by this PR. So, I think we are good to close this out.

I have asked for update in the issue.

[shawnborton]

Sounds good, closing!