When replying or forwarding an email, calling body.setAsync resets the email body twice

[bchen-hs-eng]

Provide required information needed to triage your issue

Likely related https://github.com/OfficeDev/office-js/issues/4392

Calling body.setAsync on a reply/forward email will cause the email body to reset, interfering with entering text.

Your Environment

• Platform [PC desktop, Mac, iOS, Office on the web]: PC desktop
• Host [Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.]: Outlook
• Office version number: 2402 (Build 17328.20282 Click-to-run)
• Operating System: Windows 11
• Browser (if using Office on the web): __

Expected behavior

body.setAsync sets the email body without extra side effects

Current behavior

body.setAsync sets the email body and the email body resets twice. If the user is actively typing into the email body, the contents can be cleared/reset

Steps to reproduce

• Open a received email and press the reply button. We see this issue on the Microsoft Viva emails.
• Execute item.body.getAsync, and sets the same content back with item.body.setAsync

Link to live example(s)

Javascript

$("#run").on("click", run);

const timeout = 1000;

function run() {
  // Gets current email body
  Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync(Office.CoercionType.Html, (result) => {
    document.getElementById("firstBody").innerHTML = escapeHtml(result.value);

    setTimeout(() => {
      // Sets the same email body
      Office.context.mailbox.item.body.setAsync(result.value, { coercionType: Office.CoercionType.Html }, (result) => {
        Office.context.mailbox.item.body.getAsync(Office.CoercionType.Html, (result) => {
          // Gets email body again after setAsync
          document.getElementById("secondBody").innerHTML = escapeHtml(result.value);
        });
      });
    }, timeout);
  });
}

function escapeHtml(html) {
  return html
    .replace(/&/g, "&")
    .replace(/</g, "&lt;")
    .replace(/>/g, "&gt;")
    .replace(/"/g, "&quot;")
    .replace(/'/g, "&#039;");
}

HTML

<div>
    <button id="run" class="ms-Button">
    <span class="ms-Button-label">Run</span>
</button>

    <p>--FIRST--</p>
    <p id="firstBody"></p>
    <br><br>
    <p>--SECOND--</p>
    <p id="secondBody"></p>
</div>

Context

• The flicker severely interfere with a user trying to type into the reply/forward email body.

[hsptkt]

Hi @exextoc, this is actively affecting our customers using Outlook for Windows, and they're reporting disruption to their workflows. Please let us know if the team is able to revert this change to mitigate user pain. Thank you

[akshayta23]

@Oleg-O Is this something your team can help with?

[zhngx1]

@hsptkt @akshayta23 I cannot repro the issue. Do you repro it only when call body.setAsync after the body.getAsync? Can you repro with directly calling body.setAsync?

[bchen-hs-eng]

@zhngx1 We can repro this using Script Lab, and the javascript/html pair in the issue description consistently. It calls body.setAsync after the body.getAsync, which emulates our real production add-in's usages.

[bchen-hs-eng]

@zhngx1 Any updates on this issue? Here is a recording demonstrating this issue through the provided script lab snippets:

https://github.com/OfficeDev/office-js/assets/168113738/3b603cee-39ed-4867-b232-0122e0695dac

[hsptkt]

@zhngx1 Could we please get an update on this issue?

[zhngx1]

@hsptkt , @bchen-hs-eng sorry for the delayed response. I tried it on build 17328. I can see the flickering but it does not set the body twice. Just want to confirm, is the issue about flickering or setting the body twice?

[hsptkt]

@zhngx1 The issue here is about how the flickering is causing a frustrating user experience (interfering with the customer's ability to start typing). It seems like a side effect of the body setting as @bchen-hs-eng highlighted in the example Script Lab, but we are specifically wanting to have the flickering fixed

[zhngx1]

@hsptkt May I ask why do you need to get the entire body and set it back? We are trying to see if we can provide any work around or better approach for your scenario while we investigating the issue.

[hsptkt]

Hi @zhngx1, this is still an issue for us. Our use case for get/setting the entire body is for grabbing & update link nodes in the body as the user is composing a message. Our expectation is one flicker instead of two flickers for the set.

[zhngx1]

@hsptkt, I am reopening this issue. Do you only repro this issue for Microsoft Viva emails? Do you repro it on new compose?

[hsptkt]

@zhngx1 We can repro this on replies & forwards - I'm not able to reproduce this on new composes at the moment.

[zhngx1]

@hsptkt Does it happen on all replies and forwards? Or only when replying or forwarding Microsoft Viva emails?

[hsptkt]

@zhngx1 It happens on all replies/forwards for me, and to be specific, the problem we're seeing is the flicker from the setAsync which we're noting as a regression

[hsptkt]

Re-opening this as it's still an issue for us.

[zhngx1]

I will try to repro this. At the moment, I don't have a repro for 2 flickers. Have you tried latest build of Outlook?

[zhngx1]

Is this still an issue? I can only see 1 flicker still, but that's expected due to the fact of setting the whole body. We do have concerns about the 2 flickers but we cannot repro yet. What is the number of customers impacted by this?