[$250] Chat - The main IOU disappears from chat report even if there are threaded replies

[IuliiaHerets]

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Version Number: 9.0.96-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Navigate to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Create an expense with an account
3. Go inside the expense report and send a comment
4. Reply in thread of the sent comment
5. Delete the IOU
6. Create another Manual Expense
7. Go back through the header subtitle
8. Navigate into the expense report by clicking on the report preview
9. Go back to the main chat by clicking on the header subtitle

Expected Result:

A deleted message appears since there are threaded replies and the amount on the header of the expense report on step 8 will show the correct amount not 0.0

Actual Result:

The IOU disappears from the main chat and no Deleted message comment appears. The amount on step 8 shows the correct one instead of 0.0

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/64933a1f-ec9b-4507-890c-93af1519239d
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/de409ac5-7c51-4e96-b8d9-1167dbc6af0a

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021895202979936011985
• Upwork Job ID: 1895202979936011985
• Last Price Increase: 2025-02-27

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @OlimpiaZurek

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @anmurali (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.

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

@anmurali 6 days overdue. This is scarier than being forced to listen to Vogon poetry!

[melvin-bot]

@anmurali Now this issue is 8 days overdue. Are you sure this should be a Daily? Feel free to change it!

[melvin-bot]

@anmurali 12 days overdue now... This issue's end is nigh!

[melvin-bot]

@anmurali this issue was created 2 weeks ago. Are we close to a solution? Let's make sure we're treating this as a top priority. Don't hesitate to create a thread in #expensify-open-source to align faster in real time. Thanks!

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @joekaufmanexpensify (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.

[joekaufmanexpensify]

I will triage tomorrow!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Interesting. I can reproduce this both with IOUs and expense reports. @rlinoz @Krishna2323 @shubham1206agra I feel like this could be related to #54804 given the timing, what do you think?

2025-02-27_15-01-18.mp4

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021895202979936011985

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @Pujan92 (External)

[rlinoz]

Maybe, but this one seems more likely I think #53549

[rlinoz]

Ok, looking at the report the reportAction is there, it is just not showing, so not the issue I linked.

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@rlinoz Got it. Do you think it could still be the one I lined, or not either?

[rlinoz]

Ah yeah, I forgot to comment on that one, sorry!

I tested using this build here #54804 (comment) and the problem didn't show up, so I think it is not that one either

[OlimpiaZurek]

Hey! I'm Olimpia from Callstack - expert contributor group - and I'd like to work on this issue.

[OlimpiaZurek]

I've started looking into this issue and was able to reproduce it, but only in specific cases.

It happens when there's a single submitted expense with reply messages. After deleting this expense, the API returns false for isDeletedParentAction, which prevents the "Deleted message" comment from appearing. Then, when trying to submit another expense for the same report, the API returns:

message: "400 Unique Constraints Violation"

This may be a backend issue. I'll continue looking into it further.

[melvin-bot]

@Pujan92 Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@OlimpiaZurek Any further update on this one?

[OlimpiaZurek]

Posting an update with my findings so far:

• This PR only handles cases where there are two expenses, and in that scenario, it works as expected. However, there are no cases addressing a single expense.
• I noticed that when I delete an expense and return to the main chat, the expense initially disappears but reappears after some time.
• Since there is no IOU report anymore, only ReportPreview exists, which then displays the preview as shown below:

• In offline mode, the preview appears immediately after returning to the main chat, indicating that Onyx data updates properly. The disappearing preview seems to be an API issue— it appears to take some time for the backend to update the data.
• when trying to submit another expense during the time between the expense disappearing and reappearing, the API returns a 400 Unique Constraints Violation error.

Given this, I have some questions:

• In which cases does the API for the RequestMoney command return a 400 Unique Constraints Violation error?
• What is the expected behavior when there is only one expense? After deleting this expense with a thread, should the main chat display a Deleted Expense ?
• If so, this will require some adjustments, considering this is a ReportPreview and not an IOU:

  App/src/pages/home/report/PureReportActionItem.tsx

  Line 749 in c3983a0

  } else if (action.actionName === CONST.REPORT.ACTIONS.TYPE.REPORT_PREVIEW) {

[rlinoz]

In which cases does the API for the RequestMoney command return a 400 Unique Constraints Violation error?

When we try to create a money request using an already existing transactionID, do you see the same transactionID being sent in different RequestMoney calls?

[OlimpiaZurek]

No, the transactionID differs for each RequestMoney call. Here are some example payloads:

First MoneyRequest call:

Second MoneyRequest call:

[rlinoz]

Oh it is actually thorwing trying to create the report preview action again apparently, super weird.

[melvin-bot]

@Pujan92 @OlimpiaZurek @joekaufmanexpensify this issue is now 4 weeks old, please consider:

• Finding a contributor to fix the bug
• Closing the issue if BZ has been unable to add the issue to a VIP or Wave project
• If you have any questions, don't hesitate to start a discussion in #expensify-open-source

Thanks!

[melvin-bot]

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

[OlimpiaZurek]

I've found the root cause of this issue and working on a proposal.

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Wooo, thanks!

[OlimpiaZurek]

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

After deleting the IOU, it disappears from the main chat and no Deleted message comment appears.

What is the root cause of that problem?

Currently, the [Deleted expense] is displayed for IOU's based on the message.isDeletedParentAction flag. When an expense is deleted, this flag is correctly set on the IOU reportAction, ensuring that the deleted message comment appears. However, this logic only works when there are multiple reportActions with at least one IOU reportAction.

When there is only one expense, deleting it removes the IOU reportAction (actionName: IOU), leaving only the ReportPreview reportAction. In this case:

• The message.deleted field is set with the deletion timestamp.
• According to the current logic, reportActions marked as deleted are not shown in the reportActionList.
• As a result, the [Deleted message] does not appear in the chat.

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

To ensure the [Deleted message] appears, we need to adjust the logic:

Frontend Changes:

1. Set isDeletedParentAction on previewReportAction when deleting an expense.
2. Update the logic in PureReportActionItem to allow displaying the [Deleted message] under this condition.

Backend Fixes Required:

1. The API currently returns isDeletedParentAction: false, even though Onyx stores it as true in optimistic data. This inconsistency needs to be resolved.
2. When deleting a single or last expense, the API sets message.deleted to the deletion timestamp, preventing the ReportPreview action from appearing in the chat. To fix this, message.deleted should be set to null instead of a timestamp when the last expense is deleted.
3. After deleting the last expense, creating a new one sometimes triggers a 400 Unique Constraints Violation error, even when transactionID is different. This must be investigated and fixed.

Once the necessary backend fixes are in place, the frontend logic can be updated accordingly to fully resolve these issue.

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@Pujan92 thoughts on this?