[$500] Thread - The cursor is not focused when opening a previously created thread.

[izarutskaya]

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Version Number: v1.3.96-0
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
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: Applause-Internal Team
Slack conversation: @

Action Performed:

1. Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/
2. Log in with any account.
3. Navigate to 1:1 conversation.
4. Start a thread in owned message.
5. Go back and open the thread link.

Expected Result:

Cursor is focused.

Actual Result:

The cursor is not focused when opening a previously created thread.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

• Android: Native
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: Native
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

Bug6267033_1699348180023.Missing_cursor_when_opening_a_previously_created_thread.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

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[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @lschurr (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

[melvin-bot]

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

[FitseTLT]

Proposal

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

The cursor not auto focused when opening previously created thread

What is the root cause of that problem?

Auto focus is disabled in mobile for non empty chat for the main composer. It is because shouldAutoFocus which sets autoFocus prop of Composer is false if it is non empty chat for mobile (shouldFocusInputOnScreenFocus is false for mobile) as isEmptyChat will be false here

App/src/pages/home/report/ReportActionCompose/ComposerWithSuggestions/ComposerWithSuggestions.js

Line 129 in a1a0f38

const shouldAutoFocus = !modal.isVisible && (shouldFocusInputOnScreenFocus || (isEmptyChat && !ReportActionsUtils.isTransactionThread(parentAction))) && shouldShowComposeInput;

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

We should focus before navigate to child report here

App/src/pages/home/report/ReportActionItemThread.js

Lines 46 to 48 in a1a0f38

	onPress={() => {
	Report.navigateToAndOpenChildReport(props.childReportID);
	}}

calling ReportActionComposeFocusManager.focus

onPress={() => {
                    ReportActionComposeFocusManager.focus();
                    Report.navigateToAndOpenChildReport(props.childReportID);                    
                }}

Then we should update this code

App/src/libs/focusComposerWithDelay.ts

Lines 9 to 34 in a1a0f38

	function focusComposerWithDelay(textInput: TextInput | null): FocusComposerWithDelay {
	/**
	* Focus the text input
	* @param [shouldDelay] Impose delay before focusing the text input
	*/
	return (shouldDelay = false) => {
	// There could be other animations running while we trigger manual focus.
	// This prevents focus from making those animations janky.
	InteractionManager.runAfterInteractions(() => {
	if (!textInput || EmojiPickerAction.isEmojiPickerVisible()) {
	return;
	}
	if (!shouldDelay) {
	textInput.focus();
	return;
	}
	ComposerFocusManager.isReadyToFocus().then(() => {
	if (!textInput) {
	return;
	}
	textInput.focus();
	});
	});
	};
	}

to

function focusComposerWithDelay(textInputRef: TextInput | null): FocusComposerWithDelay {
    /**
     * Focus the text input
     * @param [shouldDelay] Impose delay before focusing the text input
     */
    return (shouldDelay = false) => {
        // There could be other animations running while we trigger manual focus.
        // This prevents focus from making those animations janky.
        InteractionManager.runAfterInteractions(() => {
            const textInput = textInputRef || ReportActionComposeFocusManager.composerRef.current;

            if (!textInput || EmojiPickerAction.isEmojiPickerVisible()) {
                return;
            }

            if (!shouldDelay) {
                textInput.focus();
                return;
            }
            ComposerFocusManager.isReadyToFocus().then(() => {
                if (!textInput) {
                    return;
                }
                textInput.focus();
            });
        });
    };
}

To set the ref to ReportActionComposeFocusManager.composerRef which points to the currently rendered main composer. The reason we do that is as we are navigating to other screen if we pass the text input ref in here when the focus function is called in focusComposerWithDelay after the page is navigated to thread the ref will be an obsolete already unmounted one and our focus will not work 👍
Lastly we will change

App/src/components/Composer/index.js

Lines 473 to 478 in 7b546b0

	onFocus={(e) => {
	ReportActionComposeFocusManager.onComposerFocus(() => {
	if (!textInput.current) {
	return;
	}

to

 onFocus={(e) => {
                    if (isMainComposer) ReportActionComposeFocusManager.onComposerFocus(null);
                    else
                        ReportActionComposeFocusManager.onComposerFocus(() => {
                            if (!textInput.current) {
                                return;
                            }

                            textInput.current.focus();
                        });

This onComposerFocus is called to set the focus callback to fix this issue which is related to focus problem on web in whichReportActionItemMessageEdit composer losing focus to main composer after pressing LHN menu item. So we will pass isMainComposer prop (as true) to Composer for the main composer (ComposerWithSuggestions) and whenever the composer is focused if it is main composer we will reset the focus callback to null because we will use mainComposerFocusCallback for the main composer and only set the focus fallback for the ReportActionItemMessageEdit compsoer to preserve the fix for that issue. But the reason we add this condition is because with the existing code whenever the main compose is focused this function is always called changing the focus callback to other callback than the mainComposerFocusCallback (which focuses the correct compose text input ref). Hence, relpy in thread will still not auto focus if we have focused on the composer anytime after our latest reload of the page as the focus callback set here will execute which tries to focuses the wrong textInput ref which is the unmounted text input 👍 .

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[dummy-1111]

This looks like an intentional behavior. We don't auto focus on mobile devices
if we still want to focus, we need to have discussions and set clear expectation, I think

cc @allroundexperts @lschurr

[DylanDylann]

Proposal

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

• Thread - The cursor is not focused when opening a previously created thread

What is the root cause of that problem?

• Currently, we use the variable shouldAutoFocus to know should we auto-focus on the composer or not:
  

  App/src/pages/home/report/ReportActionCompose/ComposerWithSuggestions/ComposerWithSuggestions.js

  Line 128 in c2e4042

  const shouldAutoFocus = !modal.isVisible && (shouldFocusInputOnScreenFocus || (isEmptyChat && !ReportActionsUtils.isTransactionThread(parentAction))) && shouldShowComposeInput;

• With the mobile device, we will auto-focus in case isEmptyChat and !ReportActionsUtils.isTransactionThread(parentAction), so in case of this bug, the thread report is not focused automatically.

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

• We can update the shouldAutoFocus to:

const shouldAutoFocus = !modal.isVisible && (shouldFocusInputOnScreenFocus || ((isEmptyChat|| ReportUtils.isThread(report)) && !ReportActionsUtils.isTransactionThread(parentAction))) && shouldShowComposeInput;

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

• NA

[lschurr]

@allroundexperts could you review?

[allroundexperts]

@lschurr I would agree with @s-alves10 here. As far as I remember, we don't autofocus on mobile intentionally. Can you please confirm if this is really a bug? Thanks!

[lschurr]

Let's go ahead and close. Thanks!