Triggered auto assignment to @muttmuure (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.

@muttmuure 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

@lanitochka17

This does not have a BZ assigned. Can you remove and re-add the Bug label?

Triggered auto assignment to @Christinadobrzyn (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.

@c3024 Done

Proposal

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

Flag emojis are not completely deleted with backspace key

What is the root cause of that problem?

Some flags are composed of multiple unicode points.

For example, Wales flag has
• U E0067 (TAG LATIN SMALL LETTER G)
• U E0062 (TAG LATIN SMALL LETTER B)
• U E0077 (TAG LATIN SMALL LETTER W)
• U E006C (TAG LATIN SMALL LETTER L)
• U E0073 (TAG LATIN SMALL LETTER S)
• U E007F (CANCEL TAG)

When we click on backspace key, the last unicode code point is removed which is the CANCEL TAG here. Once this last code point is removed, the sequence becomes an incomplete sequence and the fallback black flag appears.

Further backspace key presses remove the unicode points one by one. Until the first tag is removed, the sequence stays as an incomplete sequence and it appears that the black flag could be deleted only after pressing backspace several times.

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

Different flags have different number of unicode code points.

So, we should use the grapheme-spiltter library to identify the graphemes and remove a grapheme on a backspace press.

We will add a new module grapheme-splitter in package.json and import GraphemeSplitter in ComposerWithSuggestions and update the triggerHotkeyActions (name might need to be changed to accurately reflect the new behaviour) to something like this:

const triggerHotkeyActions = useCallback(
        (event: NativeSyntheticEvent<TextInputKeyPressEventData>) => {
            const webEvent = event as unknown as KeyboardEvent;
            if (webEvent.key === 'Backspace') {
               if (selection.start === 0) {
                    return;
                }
                if (selection.start !== selection.end) {
                    return;
                }
                const graphemes = splitter.splitGraphemes(lastTextRef.current.substring(0, selection.start));
                const lastGrapheme = graphemes[graphemes.length - 1];
               if (lastGrapheme.length > 1) {
                     event.preventDefault();
                    const newText = lastTextRef.current.slice(0, selection.start - lastGrapheme.length)   lastTextRef.current.slice(selection.start);
                    setSelection((prevSelection) => ({
                        start: selection.start - lastGrapheme.length,
                        end: selection.start - lastGrapheme.length,
                        positionX: prevSelection.positionX,
                        positionY: prevSelection.positionY,
                    }));
                    updateComment(newText, true);
                }
            }

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

gonna investigate this tomorrow when I'm back from ooo

I don't see this happening on the version v9.0.54-11 (staging) or v9.0.53-1 (prod). I'll see if we can get QA to restest on the latest version. https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C9YU7BX5M/p1730175293093429

This has been labelled "Needs Reproduction". Follow the steps here: https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/16989

Still reproducible on latest build v9.0.55-2

I'm not sure how to test that version, I don't have that version. I'm asking Tom for some guidance on how to test this

Asking @izarutskaya for some guidance on how to test this bug in the version they see it in - https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C9YU7BX5M/p1730357190129519?thread_ts=1730175293.093429&cid=C9YU7BX5M

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021852238123831178456

@eVoloshchak I used regexp, it will contain all additional flags.
// England
Base component: 🏴 (U 1F3F4) – A black flag.
Tag characters:
(U E0067) – Tag Latin Small Letter G.
(U E0062) – Tag Latin Small Letter B.
(U E0065) – Tag Latin Small Letter E.
(U E006E) – Tag Latin Small Letter N.
(U E0067) – Tag Latin Small Letter G.
(U E007F) – Cancel Tag (to close the sequence).

// Scotland
Base component: 🏴 (U 1F3F4) – A black flag.
Tag characters:
(U E0067) – Tag Latin Small Letter G.
(U E0062) – Tag Latin Small Letter B.
(U E0073) – Tag Latin Small Letter S.
(U E0063) – Tag Latin Small Letter C.
(U E0074) – Tag Latin Small Letter T.
(U E007F) – Cancel Tag (to close the sequence).

// Wales
Base component: 🏴 (U 1F3F4) – A black flag.
Tag characters:
(U E0067) – Tag Latin Small Letter G.
(U E0062) – Tag Latin Small Letter B.
(U E0077) – Tag Latin Small Letter W.
(U E0061) – Tag Latin Small Letter A.
(U E006C) – Tag Latin Small Letter L.
(U E0065) – Tag Latin Small Letter E.
(U E0073) – Tag Latin Small Letter S.
(U E007F) – Cancel Tag (to close the sequence).

And if you can't repro this error, perhaps the system can process deleting by one backspace. I tested it on web

I can repro this error on Android 13 emulator. @eVoloshchak What is your Android version?

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

Hey @Anaslancer we don't have android as one of the affected platforms in the original post - can you tell me what platform version you've reproduced the issues on the Android 13?

@Christinadobrzyn I can reproduce this on the windows chrome browser too.

cc @eVoloshchak

📣 It's been a week! Do we have any satisfactory proposals yet? Do we need to adjust the bounty for this issue? 💸

This isn't a problem with our App, the same behavior can be observed on every other website.
Ideally, we'd open an issue for Chrome/JVM itself, but this problem has existed for 5 years already, and I couldn't find any attempts to fix the root cause, so I think a workaround is acceptable in this case.
This was already resolved for a different project at element-hq/element-web#22196

@c3024's proposal looks good to me. We have to make sure this doesn't affect performance negatively and make sure to test this in many browsers and on windows

🎀👀🎀 C reviewed!

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

@eVoloshchak @Gonals @Christinadobrzyn 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!

📣 @c3024 🎉 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 📖

Looks like the PR is under review - #52995

@eVoloshchak , please check this PR #52995. Thanks!

monitoring PR #52995

monitoring #52995

@eVoloshchak , gentle bump for the PR review!

@eVoloshchak 👀