[Due for payment 2025-03-31] [$250] Web - Chat - Pasted message not always displays no hyperlink format when paste as plain text

[IuliiaHerets]

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Version Number: undefined
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team

Action Performed:

1. Open https://staging.new.expensify.com/
2. At any chat, type hello and send message
3. Click three dots of message action menu
4. Click "Copy to clipboard"
5. At compose box, right click mouse and select "Paste as plain text"
6. Send message
7. Repeat 3 times from step 2 to step 6

Expected Result:

When choosing "Paste as plain text", the message is pasted without any hyperlink format

Actual Result:

The first time paste as plain text, the message is pasted with hyperlink format, the second time it is pasted without hyperlink format as expected

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6679622_1732842325268.Recording__740_1_.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021866332344495527627
• Upwork Job ID: 1866332344495527627
• Last Price Increase: 2025-01-14
• Automatic offers:
• prakashbask | Contributor | 105699511

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @CortneyOfstad

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @alexpensify (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.

[FitseTLT]

Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2024-12-06 21:28:37 UTC.

Proposal

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

Web - Chat - Pasted message not always displays no hyperlink format when paste as plain text

What is the root cause of that problem?

We are setting the plain text to a markdown value if it is anchor tag and plain text value if it is not

App/src/pages/home/report/ContextMenu/ContextMenuActions.tsx

Line 52 in 48b80f6

const plainText = isAnchorTag ? Parser.htmlToMarkdown(content) : Parser.htmlToText(content);

but anchor regex test passes intermittently for the same value as explained here because:

When the RegExp test method is run with global flag (/g), the regex keeps internally the state of the search. Therefore at each invocation the regular exception will be run from the last index that was found previously.

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

This isAnchorRegex check is introduced in #42147 to achieve copy paste consistency across web and native platforms but to achieve it the correct way to do it is to copy the mardown content to the plain clipboard here

App/src/pages/home/report/ContextMenu/ContextMenuActions.tsx

Lines 47 to 52 in 476f397

	} else {
	const anchorRegex = CONST.REGEX_LINK_IN_ANCHOR;
	const isAnchorTag = anchorRegex.test(content);
	const plainText = isAnchorTag ? Parser.htmlToMarkdown(content) : Parser.htmlToText(content);
	Clipboard.setHtml(content, plainText);
	}

        Clipboard.setHtml(content, Parser.htmlToMarkdown(content));

then convert from markdown > text here for web

App/src/hooks/useHtmlPaste/index.ts

Lines 93 to 98 in 476f397

	const handlePastePlainText = useCallback(
	(event: ClipboardEvent) => {
	const plainText = event.clipboardData?.getData('text/plain');
	if (plainText) {
	paste(plainText);
	}

const markdownText = event.clipboardData?.getData('text/plain');
            if (markdownText) {
                const pastedHTML = Parser.replace(markdownText);
                paste(Parser.htmlToText(pastedHTML));
            }

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

We can make a unit test for setClipboardMessage passing the same anchor link content (mocking canSetHtml to return true) and asserting the text argument it is passing to setHtml is the same (markdown not plain text version) for consecutive calls of the function.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021866332344495527627

[melvin-bot]

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

[alexpensify]

@Pujan92 - Can you please review and confirm if one of these proposals will fix the issue? Thanks!

[AK-web]

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

Web - Chat - Pasted message not always displays no hyperlink format when paste as plain text

What is the root cause of that problem?

ContextMenuActions.tsx (lines 45–55)

The root cause is that the plain text fallback wasn't being reliably set as the primary clipboard content before the HTML, leading to inconsistent behavior during the first "Paste as plain text" operation.

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

After:

	const plainText = isAnchorTag ? Parser.htmlToMarkdown(content) : Parser.htmlToText(content);

        // First, set the plain text to the clipboard to ensure it is prioritized
	Clipboard.setString(plainText);
	
	
        // Then, set the HTML content with plain text fallback
        Clipboard.setHtml(content, plainText);

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

To prevent reintroducing this issue in the future, automated tests should cover a range of scenarios to verify clipboard behavior and ensure consistency across environments.
Plain Text Fallback: Ensure that if Clipboard.canSetHtml() returns false, the plain text content is set correctly.
HTML Content and Plain Text: Verify that when Clipboard.canSetHtml() is true, both HTML and plain text versions of the content are set as expected.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)