[Due for payment 2025-11-17] [$250] DEV - Workspace - App crashes when saving Text type report field using Formula

[izarutskaya]

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Version Number: 9.2.8-4
Reproducible in staging?: No
Reproducible in production?: No
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: @ikevin127
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #expensify_bugs

Action Performed:

1. Open app and login.
2. Create a new workspace (skip if you have one already).
3. Go to Workspace > Reports and enable Report fields.
4. Copy Default report title formula from the section above: {report:type} {report:startdate}.
5. In the Report fields section click [+] Add field.
6. Add a random field Name and select Type > Text.
7. Paste the formula copied at step 4 into the the Initial value field.
8. Click Save > Save.

Expected Result:

The Report field should be created without the app crashing.

Actual Result:

The app crashes after saving a Text type report field using Formula as input, including crashing on any subsequent attempts to open Workspace > Reports page.
Undefined in UI after field is added in staging.

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

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

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

Before.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021966225739434953472
• Upwork Job ID: 1966225739434953472
• Last Price Increase: 2025-09-11

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @OfstadC

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @OfstadC (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[izarutskaya]

From @ikevin127

Proposal

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

App crashes after saving a Report field of type Text with a Formula as Initial value.

What is the root cause of that problem?

When we add a Report field of type Text and input a formula as Initial value, BE returns reportField.type as formula here, then getReportFieldTypeTranslationKey returns undefined because typeTranslationKeysStrategy doesn't return anything for formula, leading to the translate function throwing because we're trying to translate undefined (that's the error we see in console).

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

We have to add the missing translation together with the logic such that the app won't crash anymore.
I'll start with the missing translation / variables then will move to the components:

• in src/CONST.ts > CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES under LIST: 'dropdown' add FORMULA: 'formula'
• in en.ts > workspace.reportFields under dropdownType: 'List' add formulaType: 'Formula'
• in src/libs/WorkspaceReportFieldUtils.ts within the getReportFieldTypeTranslationKey function under [CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.LIST]: 'workspace.reportFields.dropdownType' add [CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.FORMULA]: 'workspace.reportFields.formulaType'

and now for the component-related changes, these are needed in order to allow editing the field in expense report and in workspace report fields section, behaving like the Text report field type:

1. In src/pages/workspace/reports/ReportFieldsInitialValuePage.tsx above return add const isFormulaFieldType = reportField.type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.FORMULA; then pass it in the component render next to isTextFieldType like so:

• (isTextFieldType || isFormulaFieldType)
• isSubmitButtonVisible={isTextFieldType || isFormulaFieldType}

☝️ We're doing this to allow editing the field's Initial value, otherwise nothing would show in the Initial value RHP page.

2. In src/pages/EditReportFieldPage.tsx replace all reportField.type === checks to actually use existing CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES (a bit of refactoring), then similar to the step above, for the report field type text add the formula type as well (reportField.type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.TEXT || reportField.type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.FORMULA || isReportFieldTitle).

☝️ We're doing this to allow editing the field's value in a report with expenses, otherwise editing the report field would not be possible for an expense where the newly added field exists.

3. In src/pages/workspace/reports/ReportFieldTypePicker/index.tsx where we're determining the typeSections to show during the [+] Add field flow, return early for if reportFieldType === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.FORMULA because this feature is not available yet, so we don't want to directly allow users to create report fields of type formula.

That's all, this will ensure that in the rare case that a user will paste a formula in the [+] Add field flow for type Text, the app won't crash and lock the user out of the Workspace > Reports section.

Here's a test branch with the complete solution: ikevin127-wsReportsFormulaCrash.

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

If we're going with the ☝️ main solution then we should test the getReportFieldTypeTranslationKey function and ensure it doesn't return undefined for all known values that can be input into the function.

If we're going with the👇 alternative solution, we should test the validation regex to ensure it won't allow formula type strings syntax to be added in the report fields for the Text type.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

We can also not allow the user to Save a formula type string in the Text type Initial value.

We can do that here in the validate function by using existing logic that is used to parse formulas, adding a few helper functions to src/libs/ValidationUtils.ts which will leverage the Formulas parser for detection.

This will include edge cases like missing braces on formulas:

Code spoiler

import {parse as formulaParse, FORMULA_PART_TYPES} from './Formula';
// ...

function containsFormula(value: string): boolean {
    // True if any parsed part is not freetext (i.e., report/field/user)
    return formulaParse(value).some((p) => p.type !== FORMULA_PART_TYPES.FREETEXT);
}

function hasUnbalancedBraces(value: string): boolean {
    if (!value) {
        return false;
    }
    let nesting = 0;
    for (let i = 0; i < value.length; i++) {
        const ch = value[i];
        // Treat escaped braces as literals: skip the next char
        if (ch === '\\') {
            i++;
            continue;
        }
        if (ch === '{') {
            nesting++;
        } else if (ch === '}') {
            // Found a closing brace without a matching opener
            if (nesting === 0) {
                return true;
            }
            nesting--;
        }
    }
    // Unclosed opener(s)
    return nesting !== 0;
}

/**
 * Returns true if the text field should fail validation because:
 * - it contains any formula parts (e.g., {report:type}), or
 * - it has any unbalanced/mismatched braces.
 */
function shouldFailTextFormulaValidation(value: string): boolean {
    return containsFormula(value) || hasUnbalancedBraces(value);
}

Then in the src/pages/workspace/reports/ReportFieldsInitialValuePage.tsx validate function import the helper validate function and pass:

if (type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.TEXT && shouldFailTextFormulaValidation(formInitialValue)) {
    errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = 'Cannot contain a formula.';
}

☝️This will require adding a new translated error for when validation fails due to input being a formula. With this solution we're basically not allowing the user to even Save a formula in the first place.

Result videos (before / after)

MacOS: Chrome

Before	After
before.mov	after.mov

After (alternative)
Screen.Recording.2025-09-10.at.21.27.50.mov

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021966225739434953472

[melvin-bot]

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

[zainAwan9175]

Proposal

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

When creating or editing a Text report field with a formula-like initial value such as {report:type} or {report:startdate}, the app crashes

What is the root cause of that problem?

There is no client-side validation to prevent formula tokens from being entered in non-formula field types. Formula content ends up in the default value for text, list or date fields and later conflicts with the formula processor, which causes a crash when rendering or saving.

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

A typed validator should be added to detect {report:*} tokens and reject them when the field type is not a formula. This validator should be used in both the create and edit flows so that users see inline errors and no bad data is saved. This prevents the crash before it can occur.

Code pointers:

Add the validator in WorkspaceReportFieldUtils.ts:

/**
 * Validates that formula content is not used in non-formula field types
 */
function validateReportFieldFormulaContent(type: PolicyReportFieldType, initialValue: string): string | null {
    const formulaPattern = /\{report:[^}]+\}/;

    if (type !== 'formula' && formulaPattern.test(initialValue)) {
        return translateLocal('workspace.reportFields.formulaContentNotAllowedError');
    }

    return null;
}

Apply the validator in create flow CreateReportFieldsPage.tsx:

App/src/pages/workspace/reports/CreateReportFieldsPage.tsx

Lines 61 to 99 in d87e48b

	const validateForm = useCallback(
	(values: FormOnyxValues<typeof ONYXKEYS.FORMS.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELDS_FORM>): FormInputErrors<typeof ONYXKEYS.FORMS.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELDS_FORM> => {
	const {name, type, initialValue: formInitialValue} = values;
	const errors: FormInputErrors<typeof ONYXKEYS.FORMS.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELDS_FORM> = {};
	if (!isRequiredFulfilled(name)) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.NAME] = translate('workspace.reportFields.reportFieldNameRequiredError');
	} else if (Object.values(policy?.fieldList ?? {}).some((reportField) => reportField.name === name)) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.NAME] = translate('workspace.reportFields.existingReportFieldNameError');
	} else if ([...name].length > CONST.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELD_POLICY_MAX_LENGTH) {
	// Uses the spread syntax to count the number of Unicode code points instead of the number of UTF-16 code units.
	addErrorMessage(
	errors,
	INPUT_IDS.NAME,
	translate('common.error.characterLimitExceedCounter', {length: [...name].length, limit: CONST.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELD_POLICY_MAX_LENGTH}),
	);
	}
	if (!isRequiredFulfilled(type)) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.TYPE] = translate('workspace.reportFields.reportFieldTypeRequiredError');
	}
	// formInitialValue can be undefined because the InitialValue component is rendered conditionally.
	// If it's not been rendered when the validation is executed, formInitialValue will be undefined.
	if (type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.TEXT && !!formInitialValue && formInitialValue.length > CONST.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELD_POLICY_MAX_LENGTH) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = translate('common.error.characterLimitExceedCounter', {
	length: formInitialValue.length,
	limit: CONST.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELD_POLICY_MAX_LENGTH,
	});
	}
	if (type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.LIST && availableListValuesLength > 0 && !isRequiredFulfilled(formInitialValue)) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = translate('workspace.reportFields.reportFieldInitialValueRequiredError');
	}
	return errors;
	},
	[availableListValuesLength, policy?.fieldList, translate],
	);

// existing validateForm extended with:
if (formInitialValue) {
    const formulaValidationError = validateReportFieldFormulaContent(type, formInitialValue);
    if (formulaValidationError) {
        errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = formulaValidationError;
    }
}

Apply the validator in edit flow ReportFieldsInitialValuePage.tsx:

App/src/pages/workspace/reports/ReportFieldsInitialValuePage.tsx

Lines 64 to 83 in d87e48b

	const validateForm = useCallback(
	(values: FormOnyxValues<typeof ONYXKEYS.FORMS.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELDS_FORM>): FormInputErrors<typeof ONYXKEYS.FORMS.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELDS_FORM> => {
	const {initialValue: formInitialValue} = values;
	const errors: FormInputErrors<typeof ONYXKEYS.FORMS.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELDS_FORM> = {};
	if (reportField?.type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.TEXT && formInitialValue.length > CONST.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELD_POLICY_MAX_LENGTH) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = translate('common.error.characterLimitExceedCounter', {
	length: formInitialValue.length,
	limit: CONST.WORKSPACE_REPORT_FIELD_POLICY_MAX_LENGTH,
	});
	}
	if (reportField?.type === CONST.REPORT_FIELD_TYPES.LIST && availableListValuesLength > 0 && !isRequiredFulfilled(formInitialValue)) {
	errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = translate('workspace.reportFields.reportFieldInitialValueRequiredError');
	}
	return errors;
	},
	[availableListValuesLength, reportField?.type, translate],
	);

// inside validateForm extended with:
if (formInitialValue && reportField?.type) {
    const formulaValidationError = validateReportFieldFormulaContent(reportField.type, formInitialValue);
    if (formulaValidationError) {
        errors[INPUT_IDS.INITIAL_VALUE] = formulaValidationError;
    }
}

These changes ensure {report:*} tokens are rejected in text, list and date fields but allowed in formula fields.

Result:

screen-capture.2.mp4

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

[ikevin127]

↪️ Slack bug report (for context).

Note

On staging / production the app doesn't crash but the added field does show Undefined instead of field type since translation is missing, whereas on DEV missing translation causes crash. But the proposed solution / alternative will solve both the DEV crash and staging / production Undefined translation.

Another note is that when I reported the bug, I mentioned 2 possible expected results based on what CME will decide:

Expected Result

The Report field should be created without the app crashing.
OR
User should not be allowed to create a Text type report field using Formula as input.

☝️ This is why I wrote my proposal main solution and offered an alternative solution as well to cover both cases.

[mananjadhav]

I’ll take this one.