[$250] mWeb - Compose box- Selected text isn't applied format

[lanitochka17]

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Version Number: 9.0.67-0
Reproducible in staging?: Y
Reproducible in production?: Y
If this was caught on HybridApp, is this reproducible on New Expensify Standalone?: Y
**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]

Action Performed:

1. Open https://staging.new.expensify.com/
2. At compose box of any conversation, type 1 line
3. Select all text, choose Format: Bold and send message
4. Type another line
5. Select all text, choose Format: Italic and send message
6. Type another line
7. Select all text, choose Format: Underline and send message

Expected Result:

Selected texts should apply choosing format

Actual Result:

Selected texts isn't applied choosing format

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

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

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

Bug6658637_1731058296145.Qotm2966_1_.mp4

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Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021861616540479439769
• Upwork Job ID: 1861616540479439769
• Last Price Increase: 2024-11-27

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @kadiealexander (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]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021861616540479439769

[melvin-bot]

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

[bernhardoj]

Proposal

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

Selected text isn't formatted when selecting format option from the context menu.

What is the root cause of that problem?

When we have an element with contenteditable, the context menu will show the "Format" option. However, the live markdown currently doesn't handle the format command.

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

There are 3 "Format" options, Bold, Italic, and Underline. Currently, we don't have a markdown for Underline. To handle the Bold and Italic format, we need to add new cases for bold and italic format command here.
https://github.com/Expensify/react-native-live-markdown/blob/cec2feae7463398b8d377a231be8671e1698e4a0/src/MarkdownTextInput.web.tsx#L349-L358

case 'formatBold':
  newInputUpdate = parseText(
    divRef.current,
    `${parsedText.slice(0, contentSelection.current.start)}*${parsedText.slice(contentSelection.current.start, contentSelection.current.end)}*${parsedText.slice(contentSelection.current.end)}`,
    processedMarkdownStyle,
    newCursorPosition + 2,
    true
  );
  break
case 'formatItalic':
  newInputUpdate = parseText(
    divRef.current,
    `${parsedText.slice(0, contentSelection.current.start)}_${parsedText.slice(contentSelection.current.start, contentSelection.current.end)}_${parsedText.slice(contentSelection.current.end)}`,
    processedMarkdownStyle,
    newCursorPosition + 2,
    true
  );
  break

The way the format logic work is by "wrapping" the selected text with the markdown (* for bold, _ for italic). The new selection will be added by 2 because we add 2 * or _.

But the Underline format still won't do anything because we don't have a markdown for that, and because the live markdown also handles the styling manually, so the alternative is to disable the "Format" option. We can do that by setting the contenteditable to "plaintext-only"
https://github.com/Expensify/react-native-live-markdown/blob/cec2feae7463398b8d377a231be8671e1698e4a0/src/MarkdownTextInput.web.tsx#L724

contentEditable: disabled ? 'false' : 'plaintext-only',

Based on the doc, "plaintext-only" is available on most browsers except Firefox, but this Format context menu is only available on Safari, so I think it's not a problem.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/contenteditable#browser_compatibility

[mananjadhav]

Reviewing.

[melvin-bot]

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

[kadiealexander]

Bumped @mananjadhav for review here.

[mananjadhav]

I checked @bernhardoj's proposal. I think we can go ahead with this. But before we finalize I want to understand if we could remove the Underline option from the Format menu? (Atleast on Whatsapp I don't see it), whereas Slack removes the format option for me.

Nevertheless we can use @bernhardoj's proposal as they've mentioned the alternative for removing the Format menu as well.

Tagging @Expensify/design for the input as well.

🎀 👀 🎀 C+ reviewed.

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @dubielzyk-expensify (Design), see these Stack Overflow questions for more details.

[shawnborton]

Oh interesting, I didn't even know you could do this from iOS. I suppose we could make it so that whatever style you picked from the native menu (bold, italic, etc) was applied via our markdown styles, as in we'd prepend and append a * if you picked bold. Is something like that possible?

[dubielzyk-expensify]

That'd be great if that's possible. If not, I wonder if we could hide or turn off that formatting menu altogether.

[bernhardoj]

I suppose we could make it so that whatever style you picked from the native menu (bold, italic, etc) was applied via our markdown styles, as in we'd prepend and append a * if you picked bold. Is something like that possible?

It's possible which is my main solution, however, the Format option includes Underline, but we don't have an underline markdown. I don't see a way to select which format to show, but we can hide entirely with my alternative solution.

[shawnborton]

I think it's fine if we don't have an underline markdown for now, at least we'll get the benefit of bold and italic working.

[dannymcclain]

I'm fine with making just bold and italic work or hiding that format menu item altogether. I also didn't even realize it was there haha.

[melvin-bot]

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.0.84-7 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• Handle context menu format command #54983

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2025-01-21. 🎊

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

• @mananjadhav requires payment through NewDot Manual Requests
• @bernhardoj requires payment through NewDot Manual Requests

[melvin-bot]

@mananjadhav @kadiealexander @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]

[melvin-bot]

Payment Summary

Upwork Job

• Reviewer: @mananjadhav owed $250 via NewDot
• Reviewer: @bernhardoj owed $250 via NewDot

BugZero Checklist (@kadiealexander)

• I have verified the correct assignees and roles are listed above and updated the neccesary manual offers
• I have verified that there are no duplicate or incorrect contracts on Upwork for this job (https://www.upwork.com/ab/applicants/1861616540479439769/hired)
• I have paid out the Upwork contracts or cancelled the ones that are incorrect
• I have verified the payment summary above is correct

[kadiealexander]

@mananjadhav could you please complete the checklist?

[blimpich]

@kadiealexander the PR ended up being reverted and this issue is now on hold, waiting for another issue to be completed first, so we need to wait to re-merge the PR before going through the bugzero checklist.

[kadiealexander]

Thanks for that context!

[melvin-bot]

@mananjadhav, @blimpich, @bernhardoj, @kadiealexander, @dubielzyk-expensify Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[kadiealexander]

Still waiting on #55115

[shubham1206agra]

PR is in production. Can you retest this issue? Since we added the changes reverted back.

[blimpich]

Asked for QA to retest here.

[kavimuru]

underline is not fixed yet. Bold and Itallic are fixed

ScreenRecording_01-31-2025.15-38-39_1.MP4

[mananjadhav]

I think we can track underline as a follow up. This was discussed earlier that for now we have only Bold and Italic support.

[blimpich]

Sounds good. @mananjadhav we still need to pay out this issue correct?

[mananjadhav]

Yes, need a payout summary, @kadiealexander. While I'll work on the checklist.

[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: NA

• [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.

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:

Only for iOS mWeb Safari and Web Safari

1. Open any chat
2. Type anything on the composer
3. Select some text on the composer
4. Right-click or long-press to open the web context menu
5. Select Format (iOS mWeb) or Font (Web Safari)
6. Select Bold and Italic
7. Verify the bold and italic markdown is added.

Do we agree 👍 or 👎

[mananjadhav]

@kadiealexander This is all set to be paid out.