[Due for payment 2025-04-14] [$250] Search - Pasting long text removes left padding & cursor focus is missing

[vincdargento]

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Version Number: V9.1.11-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught on HybridApp, is this reproducible on New Expensify Standalone?: N/A
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): [email protected]
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Redminote 10s android 13
App Component: Search

Action Performed:

1. Go to https://staging.new.expensify.com/home
2. Tap the Search icon at the top
3. Paste a short text into the search input
4. Observe that the text has proper left padding, and the focus is on the cursor
5. Remove the text
6. Paste a long text into the search input

Expected Result:

The left padding should be consistent for both short and long pasted text.

After pasting long text, the focus should remain on the cursor.

Actual Result:

Pasting short text maintains proper left padding and keeps focus on the cursor.

Pasting long text removes left padding, making the text stick to the left margin.

Cursor focus is missing, requiring the user to scroll to bring it into view.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

bug.mp4

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• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021899895633486475589
• Upwork Job ID: 1899895633486475589
• Last Price Increase: 2025-03-12
• Automatic offers:
• thelullabyy | Contributor | 106609870

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @mananjadhav

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @isabelastisser (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.

[nyomanjyotisa]

🚨 Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2025-03-11 13:47:54 UTC.

Proposal

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

Pasting long text removes left padding & cursor focus is missing

What is the root cause of that problem?

We apply styles.pl3 on inputStyle instead of textInputContainerStyles

and don't apply any padding right on textInputContainerStyles

App/src/components/Search/SearchAutocompleteInput.tsx

Lines 223 to 224 in 22fed8e

	textInputContainerStyles={[styles.borderNone, styles.pb0]}
	inputStyle={[inputWidth, styles.pl3, {lineHeight: undefined}]}

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

Apply both padding left and right (padding horizontal) on textInputContainerStyles

and remove styles.pl3 from inputStyle

                        textInputContainerStyles={[styles.borderNone, styles.pb0, styles.ph3]}
                        inputStyle={[inputWidth, {lineHeight: undefined}]}

Additionally, if we want to address the cursor focus issue, we can use InputUtils.scrollToRight to scroll to the right whenever the cursor is at the end of the input text

    const [cursorSelection, setCursorSelection] = useState<{start: number; end: number}>({start: 0, end: 0});
    const handleSelectionChange = (e: NativeSyntheticEvent<TextInputSelectionChangeEventData>) => {
        setCursorSelection(e.nativeEvent.selection);
    };

    useEffect(() => {
        if (ref && typeof ref !== 'function' && ref.current) {
            const input = ref.current as HTMLInputElement;
            if (cursorSelection.end === value.length) {
                scrollToRight(input);
            }
        }
    }, [value, cursorSelection, ref]);

and we should add onSelectionChange={handleSelectionChange} to the text input as well

                    <TextInput
                        ...
                        textInputContainerStyles={[styles.borderNone, styles.pb0, styles.ph3]}
                        inputStyle={[inputWidth, {lineHeight: undefined}]}
                        ...
                        onSelectionChange={handleSelectionChange}
                    />

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

None

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

New-Expensify.mp4

[thelullabyy]

Proposal

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

Pasting short text maintains proper left padding and keeps focus on the cursor.

What is the root cause of that problem?

When text is pasted into the InputComponent, the paste callback from useHtmlPaste is executed.

App/src/hooks/useHtmlPaste/index.ts

Lines 45 to 55 in 9b51ab8

	const paste = useCallback(
	(text: string) => {
	try {
	const textInputHTMLElement = textInputRef.current as HTMLElement;
	if (textInputHTMLElement?.hasAttribute('contenteditable')) {
	insertAtCaret(textInputHTMLElement, text, maxLength);
	} else {
	const htmlInput = textInputRef.current as unknown as HTMLInputElement;
	const availableLength = maxLength - (htmlInput.value?.length ?? 0);
	htmlInput.setRangeText(text.slice(0, availableLength));
	}

Copied content is added to the text field only at the position where the cursor is currently located without automatically scrolling to the new cursor position.

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

Add this logic to calculate current position of the cursor and auto scroll input that position.

requestAnimationFrame(() => {
                    const selection = window.getSelection();
                    if (selection && selection.rangeCount > 0) {
                        const range = selection.getRangeAt(0);
                        const caretRect = range.getBoundingClientRect();
                        const inputRect = textInputHTMLElement.getBoundingClientRect();

                        // Calculate position need to scroll to
                        const scrollLeft = Math.max(0, 
                            caretRect.left - inputRect.left + textInputHTMLElement.scrollLeft - textInputHTMLElement.clientWidth / 2
                        );
                        const scrollTop = Math.max(0, 
                            caretRect.top - inputRect.top + textInputHTMLElement.scrollTop - textInputHTMLElement.clientHeight / 2
                        );

                        // Auto scroll to the position of cursor
                        textInputHTMLElement.scrollLeft = scrollLeft;
                        textInputHTMLElement.scrollTop = scrollTop;
                    }
                });

This solution not only solve the problem of the paste action with Input Search on this screen but also in all other screen which use InputComponent

With the left padding we've already have a PR here Text in search input, bounces with every letter added to the search to set opacity of the loading so we don't need add more padding and when we autoscroll with above logic, padding left will be correct

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

NA

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.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021899895633486475589

[melvin-bot]

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

[isabelastisser]

Hi @mananjadhav, can you please review the proposals above? Thanks!

[mananjadhav]

I think we have similar solution of adding scrollToRight during the search. @nyomanjyotisa's proposal looks better to me.

🎀 👀 🎀 C+ reviewed

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @marcochavezf, see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/7972 for more details.

[thelullabyy]

@mananjadhav Can you help me explain why my proposal is not good? I think this is a global issue and needs to be addressed at all inputs.

Screen.Recording.2025-03-13.at.17.34.29.mov

[melvin-bot]

@mananjadhav Eep! 4 days overdue now. Issues have feelings too...

[isabelastisser]

@mananjadhav, can you please follow up on the question? I will DM you for visibility. thanks!

[mananjadhav]

It’s waiting for review from @marcochavezf.

@marcochavezf what do you think of the comment by #58214 (comment). I did a basic test of their proposal and it seems to work. But I haven’t stress tested.

Meanwhile the earlier selected proposal solves it at one place.

Let me know your thoughts.

[marcochavezf]

Oh, interesting. I'm inclined toward the solution that fixes it everywhere; otherwise, we might end up solving the issue again in other cases. Let's assign @thelullabyy, I think we can work on the edge cases (if any) in the PR 🚀

[melvin-bot]

📣 @thelullabyy 🎉 An offer has been automatically sent to your Upwork account for the Contributor role 🎉 Thanks for contributing to the Expensify app!

Offer link
Upwork job
Please accept the offer and leave a comment on the Github issue letting us know when we can expect a PR to be ready for review 🧑‍💻
Keep in mind: Code of Conduct | Contributing 📖

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

Reviewing label has been removed, please complete the "BugZero Checklist".

[melvin-bot]

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.1.23-7 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• Search - Pasting long text removes left padding & cursor focus is missing #58981

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2025-04-14. 🎊

For reference, here are some details about the assignees on this issue:

• @mananjadhav requires payment through NewDot Manual Requests
• @thelullabyy requires payment automatic offer (Contributor)

[melvin-bot]

@mananjadhav @isabelastisser @mananjadhav The PR fixing this issue has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed. Please copy/paste the BugZero Checklist from here into a new comment on this GH and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[isabelastisser]

BugZero Checklist:

• @mananjadhav Classify the bug:

Bug classification

Source of bug:

• 1a. Result of the original design (eg. a case wasn't considered)
• 1b. Mistake during implementation
• 1c. Backend bug
• 1z. Other:

Where bug was reported:

• 2a. Reported on production (eg. bug slipped through the normal regression and PR testing process on staging)
• 2b. Reported on staging (eg. found during regression or PR testing)
• 2d. Reported on a PR
• 2z. Other:

Who reported the bug:

• 3a. Expensify user
• 3b. Expensify employee
• 3c. Contributor
• 3d. QA
• 3z. Other:

• @mananjadhav The offending PR has been commented on, pointing out the bug it caused and why, so the author and reviewers can learn from the mistake.

  Link to comment:

• @mananjadhav If the regression was CRITICAL (e.g. interrupts a core flow) A discussion in #expensify-open-source has been started about whether any other steps should be taken (e.g. updating the PR review checklist) in order to catch this type of bug sooner.

  Link to discussion:

• @mananjadhav If it was decided to create a regression test for the bug, please propose the regression test steps using the template below to ensure the same bug will not reach production again.

Regression Test Proposal Template

• [BugZero Assignee] Create a GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.

  Link to issue:

Regression Test Proposal

Precondition:

Test:

Do we agree 👍 or 👎

[isabelastisser]

Payment summary:

@mananjadhav requires payment through NewDot Manual Request. $250 for C+ review
@thelullabyy paid in Upwork automatic offer (Contributor)$250 for proposal

[isabelastisser]

@mananjadhav, please complete the BZ checklist. Thanks!

[mananjadhav]

BugZero Checklist:

• [Contributor] Classify the bug:

Bug classification

Source of bug:

• 1a. Result of the original design (eg. a case wasn't considered)
• 1b. Mistake during implementation
• 1c. Backend bug
• 1z. Other:

Where bug was reported:

• 2a. Reported on production (eg. bug slipped through the normal regression and PR testing process on staging)
• 2b. Reported on staging (eg. found during regression or PR testing)
• 2d. Reported on a PR
• 2z. Other:

Who reported the bug:

• 3a. Expensify user
• 3b. Expensify employee
• 3c. Contributor
• 3d. QA
• 3z. Other:

• [Contributor] The offending PR has been commented on, pointing out the bug it caused and why, so the author and reviewers can learn from the mistake.

  Link to comment: Couldn't pinpoint an exact offending PR. This was a problem for all the inputs on a specific platform.

• [Contributor] If the regression was CRITICAL (e.g. interrupts a core flow) A discussion in #expensify-open-source has been started about whether any other steps should be taken (e.g. updating the PR review checklist) in order to catch this type of bug sooner.

  Link to discussion: NA

• [Contributor] If it was decided to create a regression test for the bug, please propose the regression test steps using the template below to ensure the same bug will not reach production again.

• [BugZero Assignee] Create a GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.

  Link to issue:

I think it makes sense to add the regression test as it relates to a common component.

Regression Test Proposal

Test:

1. Open Ap
2. Tap the Search icon at the top
3. Paste a short text into the search input
4. Observe that the text has proper left padding, and the focus is on the cursor
5. Remove the text
6. Paste a long text into the search input
7. Verify the focusing cursor remains visible at the end of the pasted text and the left padding is consistent for both short and long pasted text.

Do we agree 👍 or 👎

@isabelastisser ^

[garrettmknight]

$250 approved for @mananjadhav

[isabelastisser]

All set!