Gitter sunsetting: Can't go back to previous room version if I've never been there

[andybalaam]

Steps to reproduce

1. Visit a room that has a predecessor (defined in the create event, or, if you like, defined via MSC2946 if you've enabled the labs flag).
2. Scroll to the top
3. Look for the "This room is a continuation of another conversation." tile

Outcome

What did you expect?

The tile to appear, and to be able to (attempt to) go back to the predecessor room.

What happened instead?

No tile appeared, and this error message appeared in the console:

Failed to find predecessor room with id !etcetc:gitter.im

Operating system

Ubuntu 22.04

Browser information

Firefox 109.0.1

URL for webapp

https://develop.element.io

Application version

Element version: 27f1d99-react-5ac014ff294d-js-8a3d7d5671e5 Olm version: 3.2.12

Homeserver

matrix.org

Will you send logs?

No

[andybalaam]

Workaround: if you post a normal message linking to the predecessor, then after the user has clicked that link, they will see the tile as normal.

[MadLittleMods]

No tile appeared, and this error message appeared in the console:

Failed to find predecessor room with id !etcetc:gitter.im

Alongside fixing the problem here for the tile to show, we should update our tiles to show an error more clearly whenever a tile fails to appear. Showing some error feedback is much better than silently failing and having the user go on a goose chase to find out why it's not there or just assume they've done something wrong.

[andybalaam]

The fix for this is #24611 <- that was closed in favour of this.

[andybalaam]

The latest version of matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#3946 includes a via_servers property that helps us find a predecessor room if the user has never opened it before.

Adapt the room predecessor code to use store and this property where it helps.

[t3chguy]

@andybalaam your comment above says this is fixed by #24611 ? Should this be closed?

[andybalaam]

@t3chguy no, #24611 was closed in favour of this one. I'll update my comment.

[andybalaam]

No tile appeared, and this error message appeared in the console:

Failed to find predecessor room with id !etcetc:gitter.im

Alongside fixing the problem here for the tile to show, we should update our tiles to show an error more clearly whenever a tile fails to appear. Showing some error feedback is much better than silently failing and having the user go on a goose chase to find out why it's not there or just assume they've done something wrong.

For this tile, I've addressed this issue in matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk#10483 .

[andybalaam]

@MadLittleMods when matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk#10483 is merged, this should work for Gitter, BUT only when you have sent new predecessor events that contain via_servers properties.

[MadLittleMods]

Thanks for the fix and heads-up @andybalaam! I'm tracking re-sending the MSC3946 predecessor events with via_servers for all of the Gitter rooms in https://gitlab.com/gitterHQ/gitter.im/-/issues/10

[andybalaam]

Fixed by matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk#10483