[HOLD for payment 2023-06-30] [$1000] App crashes on pasting the public room URL again after navigating back

[kavimuru]

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Action Performed:

1. Go to staging dot on web chrome
2. Create a public room
   3.Send a message in the room (important step)
3. Copy the URL of the room and paste it in a new incognito window (without signing in)
4. Click on reply thread icon of the message and notice that it navigates you to the sign in window.
5. Now click on back button for the browser and see that a empty window page is seen. Now again paste the URL and hit enter
6. Result: See that the app crashes

Expected Result:

App should not crash on pasting the public room URL again after navigating back

Actual Result:

App crashes on pasting the public room URL again after navigating back

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: 1.3.28-3
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

error-2023-06-14_09.49.41.mp4

Recording.977.mp4

Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @avi-shek-jha
Slack conversation: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C049HHMV9SM/p1686715971306539

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• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0127842e1a6b2e7f94
• Upwork Job ID: 1669713173384228864
• Last Price Increase: 2023-06-16

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @sonialiap (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

[hungvu193]

Proposal

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

App crashes on pasting the public room URL again after navigating back

What is the root cause of that problem?

We're using getTopmostReportId even when the navigation is not ready, which make the state undefined.

Now the app will be crashed because the state is undefined and we are checking for state.routes.

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

We can update the original getTopmostReportId function here with an early return

function getTopmostReportId(state) {
    if (!state) {
        return;
    }

or we can update getTopmostReportId inside Navigation.js to this.

const getTopmostReportId = (state = navigationRef.getState()) => {
   if (!navigationRef.isReady()) {
       return;
   }
  return  originalGetTopmostReportId(state);
};

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

N/A

[daordonez11]

Hey there @sonialiap as discussed in slack I know this issue still has no external tag and might not become external but here is already draft PR that solves the issue, it might help you avoid additional work

[daordonez11]

Proposal

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

Web app crashes when user inputs again the URL after going back from sign in page

What is the root cause of that problem?

After opening the second time the React Navigation library returns an undefined state, which is sent to updateSavedNavigationStateAndLogRoute

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

Instead of having guards in the children methods I recommend having the guard in the parent NavigationRoot.js:

const updateSavedNavigationStateAndLogRoute = (state) => {
        if (!state) {
            return
        }
        navigationStateRef.current = state;
        props.updateCurrentReportId(state);
        parseAndLogRoute(state);
    };

Video of the solution working:
Mobile Browser - 14_6_2023, 14_55_36.webm
New Recording - 14_6_2023, 14_54_41.webm

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

I began trying a guard in getTopmostReportId but diving into the origin of the issue it is better to use it in the parent in case any additional method is used in updateSavedNavigationStateAndLogRoute
We can also validate with Software Mansion and check if the behavior of receiving and undefined state from the library is correct.

[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.

[sonialiap]

Reproducible. Moving to external

Thanks @daordonez11, I'm going to let the C+ review the proposals 👍

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0127842e1a6b2e7f94