[$250] Reports - "Chats" section not automatically updated when opening chat and sending messages

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.1.41-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail: N/A
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): ibellicotest+675@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Motorola MotoG60 - Android 12 - Chrome / Windows 10 - Chrome
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

1. Open the Expensify app.
2. Open any chat.
3. Send a message.
4. Navigate to "Reports"
5. Tap on the dropdown menu and select "Chats"
6. Open the just sent message.
7. Once navigated to chat, send some more messages.
8. Tap on the arrow on the top left corner to return to "Chats"
9. Note that messages list is not updated.
10. Navigate to a different section and return.
11. Note that messages list is now updated.

Expected Result:

Messages list on "Chats" should be automatically updated when opening a chat and sending more messages to it.

Actual Result:

Messages list on "Chats" is not automatically updated when opening a chat from it and sending more messages. List is updated only after navigating to a different section and returning.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6824243_1746621140217.Update.mp4

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• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021920964824598265514
• Upwork Job ID: 1920964824598265514
• Last Price Increase: 2025-05-16
• Automatic offers:
• huult | Contributor | 107369475

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @youssef-lr

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @Christinadobrzyn (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.

[Christinadobrzyn]

Can be reproduced in the OP steps - let's start with external

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021920964824598265514

[melvin-bot]

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

[huult]

Proposal

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

"Chats" section not automatically updated when opening chat and sending messages

What is the root cause of that problem?

After a deep debug, I found the root cause of this ticket—it originates from https://github.com/Expensify/react-native-onyx

I said that because we're using lodashPick to get the new value based on the existing keys in snapshotData[key], and in this case, we're unable to retrieve the new value since the key doesn't exist in snapshotData[key]. As a result, newValue will return an empty object {}, and the data will not be updated.

https://github.com/Expensify/react-native-onyx/blob/1dbd8acc86c7bd645d705e41f8ea90a9e7c6c7e4/lib/OnyxUtils.ts#L1423

Screen.Recording.2025-05-10.at.14.14.37.mp4

Can you see that 3148508881242875698 does not exist in snapshotData[key], which is why newValue is an empty object {}?

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

To resolve this issue, we just need to check if any key in value does not exist in snapshotData[key]. If that's the case, it means it's a new value, so we should simply return value like this:

https://github.com/Expensify/react-native-onyx/blob/1dbd8acc86c7bd645d705e41f8ea90a9e7c6c7e4/lib/OnyxUtils.ts#L1423

update to:

            const snapshotKeys = Object.keys(snapshotData[key] || {});
            const valueKeys = Object.keys(value ?? {});
            const hasNewKeys = valueKeys.some((k) => !snapshotKeys.includes(k));
            const newValue = hasNewKeys ? value : lodashPick(value, snapshotKeys);

Here is code to update test when Onxy package not release new version:

node_modules/react-native-onyx/dist/OnyxUtils.js

updatedData = Object.assign(Object.assign({}, updatedData), { [key]: Object.assign(oldValue, newValue) })

add above this:

            const snapshotKeys = Object.keys(snapshotData[key] || {});
            const valueKeys = Object.keys(value);
            const hasNewKeys = valueKeys.some(k => !snapshotKeys.includes(k));
            const newValue = hasNewKeys ? value : (0, pick_1.default)(value, snapshotKeys);

Screen.Recording.2025-05-10.at.14.21.48.mp4

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

Update updateSnapshots test in OnyxUtils

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Reminder: Please use plain English, be brief and avoid jargon. Feel free to use images, charts or pseudo-code if necessary. Do not post large multi-line diffs or write walls of text. Do not create PRs unless you have been hired for this job.

[Christinadobrzyn]

Hi @akinwale, can you please review the above proposal? Thank you!