[Due for payment 2025-10-21] [Merge] Attendees on expenses aren't an option when merging two expenses

[garrettmknight]

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Version Number: N/A
Reproducible in staging?: N/A
Reproducible in production?: N/A
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: @youssef-lr
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name):

Action Performed:

Precondition: Create a workspace, enable Rules, enable Attendee Tracking

1. Create an expense on a workspace and add an attendee - we'll call this Expense A
2. Create another expense on a workspace, without adding attendees - we'll call this Expense B
3. From Expense B tap More > Merge
4. Select Expense A and continue

Expected Result:

We should show the different attendee options from both the expenses so the user can choose.

Actual Result:

The attendee options aren't shown, defaulting to the attendee tracking details from the expense we originated the merge from.

Workaround:

None

Platforms:

All

Platforms Tested:

On which of our officially supported platforms was this issue tested:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @garrettmknight

[melvin-bot]

Current assignee @garrettmknight is eligible for the Bug assigner, not assigning anyone new.

[hoangzinh]

Hey @garrettmknight, how will we display options for attendees? Will we show

Attendees:
{ } Expense A's attendees
{ } Expense B's attendees

[garrettmknight]

Yeah, I think that's correct. Attendees should be comma space separated. Here's an example:

Attendees:
{ } Garrett Knight
{ } Garrett Knight, Alice Baker, Bruce Chambers

[mukhrr]

Proposal

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

There is not an option to select attendees list on merging two expenses.

What is the root cause of that problem?

New feature.

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

We should change some files to include attendees selection phase:

1. Add attendees to merge fields: Updated MERGE_FIELDS array to include 'attendees'
2. Update field handling: getMergeFieldValue to format attendees as comma-separated strings for comparison:

    // Handle attendees field - format as comma-separated string for comparison
    if (field === 'attendees') {
        const attendees = MERGE_FIELDS_UTILS[field].getDataFn(transaction);
        return Array.isArray(attendees) ? attendees.map((item) => item?.displayName ?? item?.login).join(', ') : '';
    }

3. Modify merge transaction actions to handle attendees in both API requests and optimistic updates
4. Enhance the formatValue function to properly display attendees as comma-separated names:

                            if (field === 'attendees' && Array.isArray(value)) {
                                return value.map((item) => item?.displayName ?? item?.login).join(', ');
                            }

P.s: And there may be missing files which will be taken care of in PR.

What specific scenarios should we cover in automated tests to prevent reintroducing this issue in the future?

N/A

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

N/A

Result:

[hoangzinh]

@mukhrr Thanks for your posting proposal. However, we will handle this issue in an ongoing project.

[garrettmknight]

Handling in this PR: #68204