[Due for payment 2025-04-08] [$250] Room mention link is not consistent when expense report has the same report name

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: 9.1.12-5
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught on HybridApp, is this reproducible on New Expensify Standalone?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail: Exp
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): applausetester+130302kh@applause.expensifail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Mac 15.3 / Chrome
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Submit an expense.
4. Go to expense report.
5. Click on the report header.
6. Click Title.
7. Rename the title to #helloo and save it.
8. Go back to main chat.
9. Send a mention #helloo.
10. Note that #helloo in the whisper is highlighted and linked.
11. Click on the #helloo link.
12. Note that it opens the expense report in Step 7.
13. Go back to main chat.
14. Click Yes.
15. Click on the #helloo link in the message in Step 9.
16. Now it opens the new room instead of the expense report.

Expected Result:

In Step 10, #helloo in the whisper should not be highlighted and linked because no room with the same name exists.

Actual Result:

In Step 10, #helloo in the whisper is highlighted and linked when no room with the same name exists. Only the expense report has the same title.
In Step 12, before the room with the same name exists, the room mention link opens the expense report.
In Step 16, after the room with the same name is created from whisper, the same room mention link opens the new room.
This is inconsistent.

The same issue can also be reproduced with task instead of expense report.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: Standalone
• Android: HybridApp
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: Standalone
• iOS: HybridApp
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6769569_1741861371574.20250313_181356.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @MitchExpensify

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @MitchExpensify (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.

[bernhardoj]

🚨 Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2025-03-13 11:17:19 UTC.

Proposal

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

If we rename expense report to have a room name pattern, the "room doesn't exist" whisper will show the room mention as existing and pressing it navigate the user to the expense report.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The whisper contains a tag without a reportID. If it doesn't have reportID, we find the reportID based on the report name.

App/src/components/HTMLEngineProvider/HTMLRenderers/MentionReportRenderer/index.tsx

Lines 37 to 45 in 2496dfa

	} else if ('data' in tnode && !isEmptyObject(tnode.data)) {
	mentionDisplayText = removeLeadingLTRAndHash(tnode.data);
	// eslint-disable-next-line rulesdir/prefer-early-return
	Object.values(reports ?? {}).forEach((report) => {
	if (report?.policyID === currentReport?.policyID && removeLeadingLTRAndHash(report?.reportName ?? '') === mentionDisplayText) {
	reportID = report?.reportID;
	}
	});

Because the expense report has the same policyID and report name, the expense report is returned as the room report.

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

We need to be stricter by checking if the report is a room or not.

if (report?.policyID === currentReport?.policyID && isChatRoom(report) && removeLeadingLTRAndHash(report?.reportName ?? '') === mentionDisplayText) {
    reportID = report?.reportID;
}

Or

if (report?.policyID === currentReport?.policyID && isUserCreatedPolicyRoom(report) && removeLeadingLTRAndHash(report?.reportName ?? '') === mentionDisplayText) {
    reportID = report?.reportID;
}

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

If we want to create a test, I think we can move getMentionDetails to a util file (probably a new MentionUtils.ts file) and then test the function to make sure it doesn't return the expense report with the same name as mentionDisplayText.

[daledah]

Proposal

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

The report name is highlighted in the whisper action.

What is the root cause of that problem?

When sending the #helloo message, the backend returns this whisper message:
Heads up, <mention-report>#helloo</mention-report> doesn't exist yet. Do you want to create it?.

The <mention-report>#helloo</mention-report> part is rendered using MentionReportRenderer.

For the mention to render properly, we need the corresponding reportID. In this case, this should be undefined — but instead, it incorrectly returns the reportID of a previously report (from step 7), causing #helloo to appear highlighted.

This behavior happens because of how the reportID is retrieved in this part of the code:

App/src/components/HTMLEngineProvider/HTMLRenderers/MentionReportRenderer/index.tsx

Lines 42 to 44 in 2496dfa

	if (report?.policyID === currentReport?.policyID && removeLeadingLTRAndHash(report?.reportName ?? '') === mentionDisplayText) {
	reportID = report?.reportID;
	}

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

We should disable highlighting in whisper messages altogether.
Since the whisper always indicates that the room doesn’t exist yet — and the user needs to create it — the mention shouldn’t be styled as an active or valid room.

To achieve this, we add action to the context value in here.

We then use that action to disable both the highlight style and the onPress action.

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

Render CONST.REPORT.ACTIONS.TYPE.ACTIONABLE_REPORT_MENTION_WHISPER and verify that the mention part does not have the highlight style applied.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[melvin-bot]

@MitchExpensify Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

[MitchExpensify]

I will take a look at this tomorrow hopefully

[melvin-bot]

@MitchExpensify Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[MitchExpensify]

If someone renames a report to a room name and creates a room with that name when it doesn't already exist, I think it is expected that clicking the room name link will bring you to the room