Fix: Patch PagerViewAdapter to call onTabSelect on initial mount for native by MelvinBot · Pull Request #84002 · Expensify/App

MelvinBot · 2026-03-03T08:20:49Z

Explanation of Change

On iOS native, when opening FAB > Start Chat, the search input field was not auto-focused and the keyboard did not appear. This happened because the native PagerViewAdapter (from react-native-tab-view) only fires the onTabSelect callback when the user switches tabs — it does not fire on initial mount.

The focus mechanism in NewChatSelectorPage relies on onTabSelect to call chatPageInputRef.current?.focus(), and NewChatPage has textInputAutoFocus={false}. So without onTabSelect firing on mount, the input was never focused.

A similar fix already existed for web (patch 003 on PanResponderAdapter). This PR adds an equivalent patch (004) for the native PagerViewAdapter that calls onTabSelect on initial mount via a useEffect, mirroring the web behavior.

Changes:

Added react-native-tab-view+4.1.0+004+fix-native-onTabSelect-on-mount.patch — patches PagerViewAdapter.tsx to call onTabSelect on mount using refs and requestAnimationFrame
Updated patches/react-native-tab-view/details.md with documentation for the new patch

Fixed Issues

$ #83010
PROPOSAL: #83010 (comment)

Tests

Open the app on iOS native
Tap on FAB > Start Chat
Verify the search input is automatically focused and the keyboard appears
Switch to the "Room" tab
Verify the room input is focused
Switch back to the "Chat" tab
Verify the chat input is focused again
Navigate away and come back to Start Chat
Verify the input is still auto-focused on re-entry

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

N/A — This fix is purely a UI focus behavior change that does not depend on network state.

QA Steps

Open the app on an iOS device
Tap on FAB > Start Chat
Verify the search input is automatically focused and the keyboard appears
Switch between Chat and Room tabs, verifying input focus follows the active tab
Verify the same behavior works on Android native

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

N/A — patch targets native PagerViewAdapter used on both iOS and Android. Behavior should be verified on both platforms.

Android: mWeb Chrome

N/A — this patch only affects native (PagerViewAdapter). Web uses PanResponderAdapter which already has patch 003.

iOS: Native

N/A — this is the primary platform affected. Manual testing required on device.

iOS: mWeb Safari

N/A — web is unaffected by this change.

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

N/A — web is unaffected by this change.

…native On iOS native, the onTabSelect callback was never fired on initial mount because PagerViewAdapter only triggers it on user-initiated tab changes. This caused the Start Chat input to not auto-focus when opening the screen. This mirrors the existing web fix (patch 003) for PanResponderAdapter by adding a mount-time useEffect that calls onTabSelect with the initial tab index via requestAnimationFrame. Co-authored-by: Vinh Hoang <hoangzinh@users.noreply.github.com>

Split single malformed hunk into two valid hunks to eliminate blank context lines without space prefix, which caused patch-package to fail parsing the file during postinstall. Co-authored-by: Vinh Hoang <hoangzinh@users.noreply.github.com>

MelvinBot · 2026-03-03T08:38:46Z

Fixed the failing checks. The patch file react-native-tab-view+4.1.0+004+fix-native-onTabSelect-on-mount.patch could not be parsed by patch-package because:

The single hunk had incorrect line counts in the @@ header (-57,13 +57,25 instead of the correct values)
Blank context lines in the diff body were missing the required space prefix character, which is needed for patch-package's parser

I restructured the patch from one large hunk into two smaller hunks that avoid blank context lines entirely. The actual code changes are identical — same additions to PagerViewAdapter.tsx.

MelvinBot · 2026-03-03T08:46:01Z

The original CI failures were all caused by the patch file react-native-tab-view+4.1.0+004+fix-native-onTabSelect-on-mount.patch not being parseable by patch-package. This caused npm install (via postInstall.sh) to fail in every CI job — Translation Dry Run, Spell check, HybridApp build, Perf tests, and both Remote Build jobs.

The second commit (d92a8d17c6e — "Fix: Reformat patch file to fix patch-package parse error") already addressed this. After that push, all previously-failing checks are now passing:

dryRun ✅
spellcheck ✅
validate-patches ✅
verifySignedCommits ✅
ESLint / Prettier / typecheck — not applicable (no JS/TS source changes)
Android builds ✅
iOS HybridApp — still running
perf-tests — still running

No additional code changes were needed. The remaining pending checks (iOS HybridApp build, perf-tests) are long-running jobs that are still in progress, not failing.

hoangzinh · 2026-03-06T10:36:05Z

@MelvinBot merge latest main

…SelectOnMount Co-authored-by: Vinh Hoang <hoangzinh@users.noreply.github.com>

MelvinBot · 2026-03-06T10:41:06Z

Merged latest main into this branch.

hoangzinh · 2026-03-06T10:42:15Z

@MelvinBot mark this issue is ready for review

hoangzinh · 2026-03-06T10:41:02Z

.../react-native-tab-view/react-native-tab-view+4.1.0+004+fix-native-onTabSelect-on-mount.patch

+   const pagerRef = React.useRef<ViewPager>(null);
+   const indexRef = React.useRef<number>(index);
+   const navigationStateRef = React.useRef(navigationState);
+  const onTabSelectRef = React.useRef(onTabSelect);


@MelvinBot Do we need to use useRef here?

Yes, the useRef is needed here. The requestAnimationFrame inside the mount-only useEffect(…, []) creates an asynchronous gap — by the time the rAF callback fires (~16ms later), the onTabSelect captured in the closure could be stale if the parent re-rendered in that window. The ref ensures we always call the latest version.

That said, the ref pattern also exists for consistency: PanResponderAdapter (the web adapter) already uses onTabSelectRef as part of its original library source code (PanResponderAdapter.tsx:76), and patch 003 (the web fix) accesses onTabSelectRef.current the same way. This patch mirrors that pattern for the native adapter.

In practice the stale-closure risk on mount is very small, but the ref costs only two lines and follows the established convention in the same library.

MelvinBot · 2026-03-06T10:43:24Z

I'm unable to mark this PR as ready for review due to environment permissions. You can do it yourself by clicking Ready for review at the bottom of the PR page, or by running:

gh pr ready 84002 --repo Expensify/App

hoangzinh · 2026-03-08T03:46:48Z

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
I verified testing steps are clear and they cover the changes made in this PR
- 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 that the composer does not automatically focus or open the keyboard on mobile unless explicitly intended. This includes checking that returning the app from the background does not unexpectedly open the keyboard.
I verified tests pass on all platforms & I tested again on:
- Android: HybridApp
- Android: mWeb Chrome
- iOS: HybridApp
- iOS: mWeb Safari
- MacOS: Chrome / Safari
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 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
I verified that this PR follows the guidelines as stated in the Review Guidelines
I verified other components that can be impacted by these changes have been tested, and I retested again (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar have been tested & I retested again)
I verified all code is DRY (the PR doesn't include any logic written more than once, with the exception of tests)
I verified any variables that can be defined as constants (ie. in CONST.ts or at the top of the file that uses the constant) are defined as such
If a new component is created I verified that:
- A similar component doesn't exist in the codebase
- All props are defined accurately and each prop has a /** comment above it */
- The file is named correctly
- The component has a clear name that is non-ambiguous and the purpose of the component can be inferred from the name alone
- The only data being stored in the state is data necessary for rendering and nothing else
- For Class Components, any internal methods passed to components event handlers are bound to this properly so there are no scoping issues (i.e. for onClick={this.submit} the method this.submit should be bound to this in the constructor)
- Any internal methods bound to this are necessary to be bound (i.e. avoid this.submit = this.submit.bind(this); if this.submit is never passed to a component event handler like onClick)
- All JSX used for rendering exists in the render method
- The component has the minimum amount of code necessary for its purpose, and it is broken down into smaller components in order to separate concerns and functions
If any new file was added I verified that:
- The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
- A similar style doesn't already exist
- The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(theme.componentBG)
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)
If the PR modifies a component related to any of the existing Storybook stories, I tested and verified all stories for that component are still working as expected.
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.
For any bug fix or new feature in this PR, I verified that sufficient unit tests are included to prevent regressions in this flow.
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: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-03-08.at.10.51.13.android.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

Screen.Recording.2026-03-08.at.10.53.11.ac.mov

iOS: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2026-03-08.at.11.00.21.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-03-08.at.10.54.17.is.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-03-08.at.10.49.00.web.mov

hoangzinh

LGTM

github-actions · 2026-03-09T11:52:54Z

🚧 @Gonals has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2026-03-09T11:58:04Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #84002.

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-android-Adhoc-ec18bb3-b9c28a3-f428a5a5f59aa0b49417b7702ab39c96b74d84a2/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-ios-device-AdHoc-ec18bb3-b9c28a3-67220dc8344e7f05c980a728e55ae0b6eb41bb0d/index.html

Web 🕸️
https://84002.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

OSBotify · 2026-03-09T11:58:38Z

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

OSBotify · 2026-03-09T21:27:04Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/Gonals in version: 9.3.34-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

IuliiaHerets · 2026-03-10T09:43:06Z

PR failed with an original issue on iOS, focus is lost when switching between Chat and Room

cc @Gonals @hoangzinh

Focus.lost.mp4

OSBotify · 2026-03-10T18:49:10Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/luacmartins in version: 9.3.34-2 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

MelvinBot assigned hoangzinh Mar 3, 2026

MelvinBot requested a review from a team March 3, 2026 08:20

MelvinBot mentioned this pull request Mar 3, 2026

[Due for payment 2026-03-17] [$250] iOS- Chat- Input is not focused when searching a chat #83010

Closed

7 tasks

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into claude-fixNativeOnTab…

9a093a2

…SelectOnMount Co-authored-by: Vinh Hoang <hoangzinh@users.noreply.github.com>

hoangzinh reviewed Mar 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

MonilBhavsar marked this pull request as ready for review March 6, 2026 10:49

hoangzinh approved these changes Mar 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

melvin-bot bot requested a review from Gonals March 8, 2026 04:01

Gonals approved these changes Mar 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

Gonals merged commit ec18bb3 into main Mar 9, 2026
26 of 28 checks passed

Gonals deleted the claude-fixNativeOnTabSelectOnMount branch March 9, 2026 11:48

OSBotify mentioned this pull request Mar 9, 2026

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-03-09 #84634

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MelvinBot commented Mar 3, 2026

Explanation of Change

Fixed Issues

Tests

Offline tests

QA Steps

PR Author Checklist

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