[$250] [HOLD for payment 2024-07-10] Split bill - New group is created when splitting bill with the same users

[lanitochka17]

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Version Number: 1.4.63-7 Reproducible in staging?: Y Reproducible in production?: Y If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail: https://expensify.testrail.io/index.php?/tests/view/4496719 Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): natnael.expensify+3@gmail.com Issue reported by: Applause - Internal Team

Action Performed:

1. Click on FAB > and create a split bill with two new users
2. Click on FAB > and create another split bill the same two users you have created with on step one

Expected Result:

New group shouldn't be created, and the split bill should be added to the existing group

Actual Result:

A second, new group is created

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

• [ ] Android: Native
• [ ] Android: mWeb Chrome
• [ ] iOS: Native
• [ ] iOS: mWeb Safari
• [x] MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• [x] MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

https://github.com/Expensify/App/assets/78819774/b4527362-dcdf-4103-b3f0-a566fba97660

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~01c9e84f7fad619cd5
• Upwork Job ID: 1811859168529416327
• Last Price Increase: 2024-07-12

[melvin-bot[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.

[lanitochka17]

@joekaufmanexpensify FYI I haven't added the External label as I wasn't 100% sure about this issue. Please take a look and add the label if you agree it's a bug and can be handled by external contributors

[FitseTLT]

Proposal

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

Split bill - New group is created when splitting bill with the same users

What is the root cause of that problem?

We are not checking if the group chat exists or not before creating here https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/9b2c5187e2203d83bba50bfa66936691788cbd18/src/libs/actions/IOU.ts#L3104-L3119

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

We should check if it already exists in onyx

   if (participants.length > 1) {
        const existing = ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants(allParticipantsAccountIDs, undefined, true) ?? null;
        const splitChatReport =
            !existing &&
            ReportUtils.buildOptimisticChatReport(
                allParticipantsAccountIDs,
                '',
                CONST.REPORT.CHAT_TYPE.GROUP,
                undefined,
                undefined,
                undefined,
                undefined,
                undefined,
                undefined,
                CONST.REPORT.NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCE.HIDDEN,
            );
        return {existingSplitChatReport: existing, splitChatReport: existing ?? splitChatReport};
    }

currently getChatByParticipants doesn't include group chats so we should update it to take a parameter includeGroupChats and pass as true here

function getChatByParticipants(newParticipantList: number[], reports: OnyxCollection<Report> = allReports, includeGroupChats = false): OnyxEntry<Report> {
    const sortedNewParticipantList = newParticipantList.sort();
    return (
        Object.values(reports ?? {}).find((report) => {
            // If the report has been deleted, or there are no participants (like an empty #admins room) then skip it
            if (
                !report ||
                report.participantAccountIDs?.length === 0 ||
                isChatThread(report) ||
                isTaskReport(report) ||
                isMoneyRequestReport(report) ||
                isChatRoom(report) ||
                isPolicyExpenseChat(report) ||
                (isGroupChat(report) && !includeGroupChats)

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Optonally we can update this line of code https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/9b2c5187e2203d83bba50bfa66936691788cbd18/src/libs/actions/IOU.ts#L3088-L3092 to

if (!existingSplitChatReport) {
        existingSplitChatReport = ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants(
            [...participantAccountIDs, ...(participantAccountIDs.length > 1 ? [currentUserAccountID] : [])],
            undefined,
            participantAccountIDs.length > 1,
        );
    }

[shahinyan11]

Proposal

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

Split bill - New group is created when splitting bill with the same users

What is the root cause of that problem?

New feature

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

Add below code above this line

const existingChatWithCurrentParticipants = ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants(participantAccountIDs)

if(!existingSplitChatReportID && !!existingChatWithCurrentParticipants){
    existingSplitChatReportID = existingChatWithCurrentParticipants.reportID
}

Update this line as follows getChatByParticipants(participants)?.reportID || ''

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[FitseTLT]

Updated Only to add a refactored code for same solution

[joekaufmanexpensify]

I think this report is going to be obviated by a feature refactor we're working on. Discussing.

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Not overdue

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Bumped in slack

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Bumped 1:1

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Flagged again in Slack. This is definitely #vip-split related. But don't want to make external just yet since I feel like there is a solid chance we will close this.

[youssef-lr]

@joekaufmanexpensify I'll take a look at the proposals tomorrow.

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Great. TY!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@youssef-lr is going to look at proposals

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Still pending

[youssef-lr]

I will get to this this week

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Great. TY!

[melvin-bot[bot]]

@youssef-lr @joekaufmanexpensify 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!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@youssef-lr will you have a chance to circle back to this soon? If you think we should definitely change this behavior, also happy to assign a C+ so they do preliminary review for you

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@youssef-lr making this external for now so we can start to look at the proposals. When you have a sec, could you confirm if the solution in OP of the issue is what you wanted from the design doc?

[melvin-bot[bot]]

Unable to auto-create job on Upwork. The BZ team member should create it manually for this issue.

[melvin-bot[bot]]

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

[Ollyws]

I'm getting a different behaviour as described in the OP. Seems the split functionality has been moved to the FAB menu and following the steps from there results in:

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@Ollyws yeah the split button did move to FAB, but I still get the same result when I try and reproduce. Splitting two expenses with the same two people creates a new group each time. Is that what you did to get that error?

[tsa321]

Proposal

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

Split bill always making new report despite existing group chat with same paritcipants.

What is the root cause of that problem?

In here:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/807c945ef8edabe86cc62f16c866aa754db8750b/src/libs/actions/IOU.ts#L3604-L3606

the ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants won't be called because shouldGetOrCreateOneOneDM will be false if number of participant of splited bill more than 2 (including user that make split bills). So shouldGetOrCreateOneOneDM will only be true if we split bills with exactly one other user. Then ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants won't be called and existingSplitChatReport will be undefined or null, then create new report in here:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/807c945ef8edabe86cc62f16c866aa754db8750b/src/libs/actions/IOU.ts#L3620

---

and another problem if we disable shouldGetOrCreateOneOneDM check, and do getChatByParticipants, the call to the function isn't including self/current account id. so it just pass other participant without ownself/current user (user that create split bill):

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/807c945ef8edabe86cc62f16c866aa754db8750b/src/libs/actions/IOU.ts#L3606

---

and another problem in getChatByParticipants function:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/807c945ef8edabe86cc62f16c866aa754db8750b/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts#L5151

it won't check on group report.

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

We need to add parameter currentUserAccountID if we use ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants and we need to investigate why the function won't search on groupChat:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/807c945ef8edabe86cc62f16c866aa754db8750b/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts#L5151

if we can disable this check then we can use this function. If we cannot disable this check (because of regression if we disable it) then we can create new function getGroupChatByParticipants and use it in getOrCreateOptimisticSplitChatReport function instead of ReportUtils.getChatByParticipants.

Also we need to investigate why:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/807c945ef8edabe86cc62f16c866aa754db8750b/src/libs/actions/IOU.ts#L3605

shouldGetOrCreateOneOneDM condition will be false if number split bill participant is more than 1. I think we can disable this check but, further investigation on git blame will give some information .

Result:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/assets/114975543/018d4364-e29d-4e57-b629-3cd2d69536ec

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Still discussing behavior here

[Ollyws]

I'm getting the behaviour mentioned here https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/40579#issuecomment-2100014121 when splitting from the FAB menu, but if I split from the + menu in the chat it seems to create a new report action in the same chat:

[tsa321]

@Ollyws the error is because the app create new report every time user splits expense from + FAB button -> Split expense. The server will returns error, because we must use existing group report with same split expense participant and we mustn't create new report.

If you can check my proposal, and here is the result:

Result:

https://github.com/Expensify/App/assets/114975543/018d4364-e29d-4e57-b629-3cd2d69536ec

[joekaufmanexpensify]

I'm getting the behaviour mentioned here https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/40579#issuecomment-2100014121 when splitting from the FAB menu, but if I split from the + menu in the chat it seems to create a new report action in the same chat:

Got it. I think the behavior specifically reported for this issue is for FAB. Though, I definitely agree this should work if from within the group too

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Still pending further discussion

[Ollyws]

Investigating this one...

[joekaufmanexpensify]

TY!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@Ollyws any update on this?

[Ollyws]

Apologies for the delay, will come to a conclusion tomorrow.

[Ollyws]

@FitseTLT's proposal LGTM. I don't see why we can't just update getChatByParticipants to support group chats and remove the && shouldGetOrCreateOneOneDM condition but we can address this in the PR.

🎀👀🎀 C+ reviewed

[melvin-bot[bot]]

Current assignee @youssef-lr is eligible for the choreEngineerContributorManagement assigner, not assigning anyone new.

[melvin-bot[bot]]

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[shahinyan11]

@Ollyws Could you please give a feedback about my proposal ?

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Pending sign off from @youssef-lr

[melvin-bot[bot]]

@youssef-lr @Ollyws @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!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@FitseTLT please share ETA for a PR

[melvin-bot[bot]]

@youssef-lr, @Ollyws, @FitseTLT, @joekaufmanexpensify Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@FitseTLT is there an ETA for a PR here?

[FitseTLT]

PR is ready

[joekaufmanexpensify]

PR in review

[joekaufmanexpensify]

PR awaiting review from @youssef-lr

[FitseTLT]

bump for a final review @youssef-lr

[youssef-lr]

on it today @FitseTLT

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Still pending review from @youssef-lr

[joekaufmanexpensify]

@youssef-lr Is this issue on hold now because of the change in project status?

[FitseTLT]

@youssef-lr The conflict resolved and ready for your final review 👍