[$250] Code block markdown renders incorrectly

[m-natarajan]

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Version Number: 9.0.71-0
Reproducible in staging?: Y
Reproducible in production?: Y
If this was caught on HybridApp, is this reproducible on New Expensify Standalone?:
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @MonilBhavsar
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): expensify_bugs

Action Performed:

1. In any chat, type the following message - "hello `` hi`" (remove double quotes)
2. Send the message

Expected Result:

Message composed as hello `` hi`

Actual Result:

Message composed as hello `` hi`

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

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021866767677427055045
• Upwork Job ID: 1866767677427055045
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• QichenZhu | Contributor | 105481643

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @allroundexperts

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @JmillsExpensify (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]

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

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021866767677427055045

[melvin-bot]

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

[JmillsExpensify]

This isn't really related to convert/migrate/retain so I added it to quality.

[QichenZhu]

Proposal

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

Markdown doesn't currently support empty code blocks.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The user expects double backticks in the middle itself to be an empty code block. This is also mentioned in this comment.

`hello` `` hi`

However, the current regex doesn't allow this and requires inline code blocks to contain at least one non-whitespace character, a space, or a no-break space.

https://github.com/Expensify/expensify-common/blob/6611dab75bcbf6ec5950401990299f883536a6c0/lib/ExpensiMark.ts#L230

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

Now that we allow spaces as content, there's no need to disallow empty content, as it's confusing for both users and developers. I suggest simplifying the regex.

regex: /(\B|_|)&#x60;(.*?)&#x60;(\B|_|)(?!(?!<pre>)[^<]*(?:<(?!pre>)[^<]*)*<\/pre>|[^<]*<\/video>)/gm,

Resolving this issue will also unblock #52780 (comment).

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

New test case to add

Test string: "`hello` `` hi`"
Expected result: "<code>hello</code> <code></code> hi&#x60;"

Existing test cases to update

Test inline code blocks with double backticks

Expected result before: "My favorite language is <code>&#x60;JavaScript&#x60;</code>. How about you?"
Expected result after: "My favorite language is <code></code>JavaScript<code></code>. How about you?"

Test inline code blocks with triple backticks

Expected result before: "My favorite language is <code>&#x60;&#x60;JavaScript&#x60;&#x60;</code>. How about you?"
Expected result after: "My favorite language is <code></code><code>JavaScript</code><code></code>. How about you?"

Test inline code with one backtick as content

Expected result before: "```"
Expected result after: "<code></code>&#x60;"

Test inline code with multiple backtick symbols as content

Expected result before: "``````"
Expected result after: "<code></code><code></code><code></code>"

Test inline code blocks with two backticks

Expected result before: "<code>&#x60;JavaScript&#x60;</code>"
Expected result after: "<code></code>JavaScript<code></code>"

Test for backticks only tab characters inside it

Expected result before: "`	`"
Expected result after: "<code>	</code>"

Test for inline code block with triple backtick with spaces as content

Expected result before: "<code>&#x60;&#x60;   &#x60;&#x60;</code>"
Expected result after: "<code></code><code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</code><code></code>"

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts Eep! 4 days overdue now. Issues have feelings too...

[allroundexperts]

@QichenZhu's proposal looks good to me. I am pretty confident that if all our existing unit tests on regex pass after this change, we won't introduce any regression.

🎀 👀 🎀 C+ reviewed

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify @allroundexperts @jasperhuangg this issue was created 2 weeks ago. Are we close to approving a proposal? If not, what's blocking us from getting this issue assigned? Don't hesitate to create a thread in #expensify-open-source to align faster in real time. Thanks!

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts, @jasperhuangg Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

[allroundexperts]

@jasperhuangg Kind bump

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts, @jasperhuangg Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

[melvin-bot]

📣 @QichenZhu 🎉 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]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts, @jasperhuangg, @QichenZhu Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[QichenZhu]

Not overdue. PR is under review.

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts, @jasperhuangg, @QichenZhu Uh oh! This issue is overdue by 2 days. Don't forget to update your issues!

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify @allroundexperts @jasperhuangg @QichenZhu 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!

[QichenZhu]

There is already a PR upgrading expensify-common: #54685.

[allgandalf]

@allroundexperts are you going to bump the dependancy version with this issue ?

[allroundexperts]

@allgandalf #53573 (comment)

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts, @jasperhuangg, @QichenZhu Huh... This is 4 days overdue. Who can take care of this?

[melvin-bot]

@JmillsExpensify, @allroundexperts, @jasperhuangg, @QichenZhu 6 days overdue. This is scarier than being forced to listen to Vogon poetry!

[QichenZhu]

Update: #54685 has been merged, and I verified it fixed this issue.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

android-native.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

android-web.mp4

iOS: Native

ios-native.mp4

iOS: mWeb Safari

ios-web.mp4

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

mac-web.mov

MacOS: Desktop

mac-desktop.mp4