Composer: add clear command that bypasses the event count

[hannojg]

Details

This PR fixes an issue where the composer's text input wouldn't show the value the user expects (ie. it wouldn't immediately clear). The following use case now works:

• Spam the 'a' key, typing 'aaaaaa...'
• Press send
• Spam the 'b' key, typing 'bbbbbb...'
• Expect that the composer shows first 'aaaaaa', then clears it, then it shows 'bbbbbb'

Its the third attempt after these PRs got reverted:

• Composer: add clear command that bypasses the event count #45613
• Composer: add clear command that bypasses the event count #46091

which got reverted due to:

• Android & iOS - Composer - Selected emoji is not shown in the composer after sending message #46024
• Chat - List of mentioned accounts cover the typed text when composer has multiple lines #46622

(I added the reproduction of this bug as test case)

Solution explained

This PR fixes the problem by adding an explicit clear view command to the native text input view managers for clearing the text input.

Usually when calling testInputRef.clear() or setting the value prop to "" it internally calls a view command called setTextAndSelection("", 0, 0).
setTextAndSelection is using an event count mechanism. It drops events from JS that have an outdated event count.
The problem is that when we type text, click send, it can happen the user types more text before the setTextAndSelection("", 0, 0) event reached the native side. Once it arrives it is already outdated and is simply dropped.

Our explicit clear view command always takes the latest event count on the native side (and actually also increments it, so any further updates that might happened in between get dropped).

I recommend watching this recording with the solution in place. You can see how the JS thread is lacking behind as we rapidly send new messages:

ios-native.mov

The clearing now is guaranteed to happen immediately after pressing the enabled send button.

For sending, we don't rely on the value state which could be outdated when the JS thread catches up and is ready to process sending, but on the text parameter we receive in newly added onClear callback.
This mechanism ensures that the full typed message gets send.

Code changes explained

• Before we were clearing the composer's TextInput passing a shouldClear: boolean prop. Now the composer is just cleared using a ref method (this greatly simplified the clearing flow)
• The <TextInput /> now has an explicit view command called clear()
• The <TextInput /> now accepts a onClear prop.
  • This will be called once the native clear command has cleared the text on the UI thread.
  • Contains a text parameter, which is the value of the text that was cleared
• When pressing the send button all we do is to call .clear()
• In the onClear callback we take the text and send the message with that text
• I was able to remove the prepareCommentAndResetComposer method. Before we would imperatively call this method to signal we want to clear the composer. Now, we just call the view command clear and wait for the onClear callback to get us the comment value we need to send.

Upstream PR at facebook/react-native

I discussed this with multiple people and figured the best way is to first start a discussion on the react-native repo. I suspect that such a change can take a long while until it gets merged to react-native in some way:

• `TextInput`: Fix clearing issues w/ methods to circumvent the event count to force set a value from JS react-native-community/discussions-and-proposals#803

It might also be that meta doesn't want to do any of these changes. In this case we already discussed on slack that we might want to look into writing our own expensify text input component that extends react-native's.

There exists an issue for that in react-native:

• TextInput desynchronizes with its native counterpart facebook/react-native#37722

Fixed Issues

$ #37896
PROPOSAL:

Tests

Note: For web there is a bug on main that prevents pressing the send button. Make sure to set USE_REACT_STRICT_MODE: false in the CONFIG.ts

• Test case A: Test that the composer clears:
  • Type 12121212 fast
  • Press send but while you do continue typing 34343434
  • Press send but while you do continue typing 56565656
  • Make sure each text got send completely and nothing got stuck in the composer
  • NOTE: It can happen that the JS thread is busy, and that you click on the send button while it's grayed. It's possible that JS kept the send button disabled and your message wasn't send. This is expected as the send button is controlled on the JS thread.
• Test case B: Sending emoji after previous message works
  • Send a message
  • In the cleared composer click on the emoji icon and select an emoji
  • make sure it shows up and you are able to send the message
• Test case C: Send a text message with an attachment, make sure it works as expected
• Test case D: On mobile web suggestions are positioned correctly
  • Write 10 lines of text in the composer
  • With the cursor of the end/bottom, type an @ to trigger the mention suggestions
  • Confirm that they are positioned correctly

Note: This changed code around the composer. Please test every composer action you can think of (including emojis, mentions, markdown, etc.)

Offline tests

n/a

QA Steps

Same as testing

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
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

android-native.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

mWeb-android.mov

iOS: Native

ios-native.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

mWeb-ios.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

web.mov

MacOS: Desktop

desktop.mov

[melvin-bot]

@Ollyws 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]

[Ollyws]

Reviewing today...

[Ollyws]

Reviewer Checklist

• I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
• I verified the correct issue is linked in the ### Fixed Issues section above
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  • I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
  • I verified the steps for Staging and/or Production testing are in the QA steps section
  • I verified the steps cover any possible 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 checked that screenshots or videos are included for tests on all platforms
• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I verified tests pass on all platforms & I tested again on:
  • Android: Native
  • Android: mWeb Chrome
  • iOS: Native
  • iOS: mWeb Safari
  • MacOS: Chrome / Safari
  • MacOS: Desktop
• If there are any errors in the console that are unrelated to this PR, I either fixed them (preferred) or linked to where I reported them in Slack
• I verified proper code patterns were followed (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
  • 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 either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
  • 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
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• 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)
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• If the PR modifies a component or page that can be accessed by a direct deeplink, I verified that the code functions as expected when the deeplink is used - from a logged in and logged out account.
• If the PR modifies the UI (e.g. new buttons, new UI components, changing the padding/spacing/sizing, moving components, etc) or modifies the form input styles:
  • I verified that all the inputs inside a form are aligned with each other.
  • I added Design label and/or tagged @Expensify/design so the design team can review the changes.
• 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 reviewer checklist, including those that don't apply to this PR.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

01_Android_Native.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

02_Android_Chrome.mp4

iOS: Native

03_iOS_Native.mp4

iOS: mWeb Safari

04_iOS_Safari.mp4

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

05_MacOS_Chrome.mp4

MacOS: Desktop

06_MacOS_Desktop.mp4

[Ollyws]

Both issues are fixed and the rest LGTM.

[MariaHCD]

Seems like I can't merge due to conflicts 👀

[hannojg]

All fixed @MariaHCD !

[OSBotify]

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

[Beamanator]

FYI I believe this was deployed to prod yesterday, from this checklist - #47219