[HOLD for payment 2024-02-01] MEDIUM: Notification counter has phantom unreads

[m-natarajan]

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Version Number: 1.4.16-3
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
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @shawnborton
Slack conversation: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C049HHMV9SM/p1703179378879089

Action Performed:

1. View the thread of a public room created on a private workspace

Expected Result:

Just looking at a thread shouldn't join it (you need to explicitly join a thread and subscribe to it), and thus shouldn't generate notifications.

Actual Result:

I think the actions here are that I viewed a thread, but didn't participate in it. As such, whenever that thread got a new message, my notification count went up but I had no unread messages in my LHN.

Workaround:

unknown

Platforms:

Which of our officially supported platforms is this issue occurring on?

• Android: Native
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: Native
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

Recording.348.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

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[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @CortneyOfstad (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

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @0xmiroslav (External)

[gijoe0295]

Proposal

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

Unread counter includes reports with hidden notification preference.

What is the root cause of that problem?

Although notification preference was hidden, the Pusher still notified user about this report.

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

Unread counter includes reports with hidden notification preference. We should add a condition to exclude them here:

App/src/libs/UnreadIndicatorUpdater/index.ts

Lines 14 to 16 in e89e466

	const unreadReports = Object.values(allReports ?? {}).filter(
	(report) => ReportUtils.isUnread(report) && ReportUtils.shouldReportBeInOptionList(report, currentReportID ?? '', false, [], {}),
	);

This is the easiest fix.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Fix the BE not to notify hidden notification reports.

[bernhardoj]

Proposal

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

The notification counter goes up when a new message arrives on a report with a HIDDEN notification preference.

What is the root cause of that problem?

When we have a report with notification preference set to HIDDEN, the report won't be shown on the LHN.

Currently, we already exclude any report that doesn't show on LHN from the unread count.

App/src/libs/UnreadIndicatorUpdater/index.ts

Lines 13 to 16 in b74be72

	// We want to keep notification count consistent with what can be accessed from the LHN list
	const unreadReports = Object.values(allReports ?? {}).filter(
	(report) => ReportUtils.isUnread(report) && ReportUtils.shouldReportBeInOptionList(report, currentReportID ?? '', false, [], {}),
	);

However, the logic to hide a report with a notification preference of HIDDEN is not included in shouldReportBeInOptionList. The way we hide it is by returning null for OptionRowLHN.

App/src/components/LHNOptionsList/OptionRowLHN.js

Lines 90 to 93 in b74be72

	const isHidden = optionItem.notificationPreference === CONST.REPORT.NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCE.HIDDEN;
	if (isHidden && !props.isFocused && !optionItem.isPinned) {
	return null;
	}

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

We should move the logic to hide a report with notification preference of HIDDEN to shouldReportBeInOptionList.

if (report.notificationPreference === CONST.REPORT.NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCE.HIDDEN) {
    return false;
}

But the notificationPreference property isn't available because we use a selector here, so we need to include notificationPreference too.

App/src/pages/home/sidebar/SidebarLinksData.js

Lines 136 to 171 in b74be72

	const chatReportSelector = (report) =>
	report && {
	reportID: report.reportID,
	participantAccountIDs: report.participantAccountIDs,
	hasDraft: report.hasDraft,
	isPinned: report.isPinned,
	isHidden: report.isHidden,
	errorFields: {
	addWorkspaceRoom: report.errorFields && report.errorFields.addWorkspaceRoom,
	},
	lastMessageText: report.lastMessageText,
	lastVisibleActionCreated: report.lastVisibleActionCreated,
	iouReportID: report.iouReportID,
	total: report.total,
	nonReimbursableTotal: report.nonReimbursableTotal,
	hasOutstandingChildRequest: report.hasOutstandingChildRequest,
	isWaitingOnBankAccount: report.isWaitingOnBankAccount,
	statusNum: report.statusNum,
	stateNum: report.stateNum,
	chatType: report.chatType,
	type: report.type,
	policyID: report.policyID,
	visibility: report.visibility,
	lastReadTime: report.lastReadTime,
	// Needed for name sorting:
	reportName: report.reportName,
	policyName: report.policyName,
	oldPolicyName: report.oldPolicyName,
	// Other less obvious properites considered for sorting:
	ownerAccountID: report.ownerAccountID,
	currency: report.currency,
	managerID: report.managerID,
	// Other important less obivous properties for filtering:
	parentReportActionID: report.parentReportActionID,
	parentReportID: report.parentReportID,
	};

This way, we have a "single source of truth".