LOW: Implement filtering for search pages.

[TMisiukiewicz]

Problem

Based on our measurements in high-traffic accounts, the search page takes an average of 4100ms to re-render on every keystroke. This is a problem because the user will notice a significant lag between changing their search term and the results list updating.
The root cause of this problem is getSearchText, which is called for every keystroke and is inefficient because it reconstructs all the options in the results list using createOption over and over.

Solution

Let's speed up getSearchText by refactoring it such that, instead of re-generating all the result options every time the search terms change, we just generate the options once and filter them based on the current search term.
To achieve this, we recommend using a rank-value sorting, where a higher number means it will appear higher in the list:

• Acronym - item’s acronym is the given value
• Contains - item contains the given value
• Word starts with - if one of the item’s words starts with the given value
• Starts with - if the item starts with the given value
• Equals - case-insensitive equality
• Case sensitive - case-sensitive equality

Note that this will maintain the current search result ordering, just implement it in a different way. By making this change, we can improve the following metrics:

• open_search → Before: ~5900ms → After: ~4900ms (~1000ms improvement)
• load_search_options → Before: ~4100ms → After: ~3200ms (~900ms improvement)
• search query changed after initial load → Before: 4100ms → After: 350ms (~12x improvement)

We can apply this technique everywhere in the app where we use a search bar to filter option results.

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @stephanieelliott

[melvin-bot]

Auto-assigning issues to engineers is no longer supported. If you think this issue should receive engineering attention, please raise it in #whatsnext.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @stephanieelliott (NewFeature), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/14418#:~:text=BugZero%20process%20steps%20for%20feature%20requests for more details.

[roryabraham]

Making @TMisiukiewicz the issue owner here since for now we're just awaiting a PR

[TMisiukiewicz]

Already incorporated the algorithm into the codebase and created an util responsible for filtering, now working on implementing it into the first search page

[TMisiukiewicz]

I just opened a draft PR with an example implementation in Search Page, I would be more than happy to get some initial feedback! @roryabraham how should we approach implementing it in other search pages? Should we implement filtering in all required pages with this single PR or should we get this one merged first and then implement each one separately?
Once we migrate each search page to use filtering, we will be able to stop using searchText property which will improve the performance of generating options

[roryabraham]

how should we approach implementing it in other search pages? Should we implement filtering in all required pages with this single PR or should we get this one merged first and then implement each one separately?

let's definitely break it up into a series of smaller PRs if there's a straightforward way to do that. It might feel like more work but things always tend to go smoother this way 🙂

[DylanDylann]

@TMisiukiewicz Could you help to make a video about this problem on staging?

I also see this problem

the search page takes an average of 4100ms to re-render on every keystroke.

But It seems the RCA is from SearchForReports API takes a long time to respond

Screen.Recording.2024-03-13.at.16.51.08.mov

Please correct me if I missed anything

[TMisiukiewicz]

hi @DylanDylann, the server search is not related to the changes made in this PR. This PR improves the performance of the local search by replacing options generation with filtering. On staging, you can enable showing verbose logs in the console and look for the messages: Timing:staging.new.expensify.load_search_options, when you type in the search input, it will give you the amount of time it takes to load the options that should be visible on the list. When testing this PR, this message won't be displayed after typing because it's not re-generating the options anymore - results should be displayed quicker.

Staging:

Screen.Recording.2024-03-13.at.11.42.32.mov

Adhoc:

Screen.Recording.2024-03-13.at.11.45.05.mov

As you can see in the Adhoc build, the load_search_options is registered once server search is resolved, not when user stops typing (it's probably because response from the server updates some reports and there is a need of generating it once again)

[DylanDylann]

@TMisiukiewicz Thanks. I see that in your PR.

[stephanieelliott]

PR is moving along, seems like we are ready to test 🚀

[stephanieelliott]

PR is waiting on your review @roryabraham!

[roryabraham]

Sorry for the delay. I'll try to review tomorrow. It's a large PR so something I need to carve out a bit more time for

[stephanieelliott]

PR is being actively reviewed

[melvin-bot]

This issue has not been updated in over 15 days. @TMisiukiewicz, @stephanieelliott, @roryabraham eroding to Monthly issue.

P.S. Is everyone reading this sure this is really a near-term priority? Be brave: if you disagree, go ahead and close it out. If someone disagrees, they'll reopen it, and if they don't: one less thing to do!

[TMisiukiewicz]

Since we already have first filtering implemented, I'll be moving forward with using it in the rest of search pages. I'll create separate PR for each one of them

[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 9.0.1-19 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• perf: Filter options in Request Money and Send Money #40235

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2024-07-02. 🎊

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

• @TMisiukiewicz does not require payment (Contractor)

[melvin-bot]

BugZero Checklist: The PR adding this new feature has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed:

• [@TMisiukiewicz] Please propose regression test steps to ensure the new feature will work correctly on production in further releases.
• [@stephanieelliott] Link the GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.

[melvin-bot]

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.0.3-7 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• perf: Filter options in Request Money and Send Money #40235

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2024-07-10. 🎊

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

• @TMisiukiewicz does not require payment (Contractor)

[melvin-bot]

BugZero Checklist: The PR adding this new feature has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed:

• [@TMisiukiewicz] Please propose regression test steps to ensure the new feature will work correctly on production in further releases.
• [@stephanieelliott] Link the GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.

[melvin-bot]

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.0.5-13 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• perf: Intive to workspace options filtering #40793

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2024-07-17. 🎊

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

• @TMisiukiewicz does not require payment (Contractor)

[melvin-bot]

BugZero Checklist: The PR adding this new feature has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed:

• [@TMisiukiewicz] Please propose regression test steps to ensure the new feature will work correctly on production in further releases.
• [@stephanieelliott] Link the GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.

[melvin-bot]

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.0.6-8 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

• perf: Intive to workspace options filtering #40793

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2024-07-22. 🎊

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

• @TMisiukiewicz does not require payment (Contractor)

[melvin-bot]

BugZero Checklist: The PR adding this new feature has been merged! The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed:

• [@TMisiukiewicz] Please propose regression test steps to ensure the new feature will work correctly on production in further releases.
• [@stephanieelliott] Link the GH issue for creating/updating the regression test once above steps have been agreed upon.