[HOLD for payment 2024-03-20] HIGH: [$500] Deeplink - User is not redirected to public room if the app is already open

[isagoico]

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Version Number: 1.4.42.0

Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes

Issue reported by: Applause -Internal team
Slack conversation: Found while executing tests for https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C9YU7BX5M/p1708359665549809

Action Performed:

1. Open the app and Sign out if needed
2. Deep link to this public room from another app like Gmail or slack: https://staging.new.expensify.com/r/6776919265133947

Expected Result:

Navigating to the deeplink should work and take the user to the public room.

Actual Result:

If the app is already open, the user is navigated to the login screen instead of the room.

Workaround:

Can the user still use Expensify without this being fixed? Have you informed them of the workaround?

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

Bug6384793_1708366194698.Screen_Recording_20240219_201845_New_Expensify.mp4

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• dukenv0307 | Contributor | 0

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @stitesExpensify

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @laurenreidexpensify (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details.

[mallenexpensify]

@isagoico thinks this might be related to #36812
Adding to #vip-vsb project.

[dukenv0307]

@laurenreidexpensify Is this open to contributors? (I see it doesn't have Help Wanted label but not sure if it's intentional)

[bernhardoj]

Proposal

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

Can't deep link to public room after sign-out from the app.

What is the root cause of that problem?

When we deep link to a report, it will check whether authenticated status is false.

App/src/libs/actions/Report.ts

Lines 2204 to 2206 in d33bf6e

	if (reportID && !isAuthenticated) {
	// Call the OpenReport command to check in the server if it's a public room. If so, we'll open it as an anonymous user
	openReport(reportID, [], {}, '0', true);

The authenticated status is passed from this useEffect with an empty deps which means the value is never updated.

App/src/Expensify.js

Lines 200 to 212 in d33bf6e

	// Open chat report from a deep link (only mobile native)
	Linking.addEventListener('url', (state) => {
	Report.openReportFromDeepLink(state.url, isAuthenticated);
	});
	return () => {
	if (!appStateChangeListener.current) {
	return;
	}
	appStateChangeListener.current.remove();
	};
	// eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps -- we don't want this effect to run again
	}, []);

So, when we sign out, the authenticated status is still true, thus we can't deep link to a public room.

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

We should put the linking listener on a new useEffect with authenticated status as the deps and reregister the listener.

useEffect(() => {
    const linking = Linking.addEventListener('url', (state) => {
        Report.openReportFromDeepLink(state.url, isAuthenticated);
    });
    return linking.remove;
}, [isAuthenticated])

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Create a ref for isAuthenticated so we don't need to re-register the listener.

[dukenv0307]

Proposal

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

If the app is already open, the user is navigated to the login screen instead of the room.

What is the root cause of that problem?

In here, when we register the listener, we use isAuthenticated from the component state, but isAuthenticated is not in the useEffect dependency list here, so even when isAuthenticated turns from true to false, it will still remain true in the listener. Then it will not openReport on the public room here, leading to the issue.

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

We should not depend on the component state inside openReportFromDeepLink, that utility should remain independent from any component's lifecycle and works on it's own.

To do that we can use the same approach we're already using for the isAnonymousUser check.

1. Define a isAuthenticated method here and export it.

function isAuthenticated(): boolean {
    return !!sessionAuthToken;
}

2. Use it here and remove the isAuthenticated param that relies on component lifecycle

if (reportID && !Session.isAuthenticated()) {

function openReportFromDeepLink(url: string) {

The openReportFromDeepLink cannot be used independent of any specific component, and it won't have such issues like this. The Session.isAuthenticated can be used where the authentication status is needed too.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

NA

[melvin-bot]

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