Fix the older messages spinner getting stuck while scrolling up

[gpunto]

Goal

Fix the older messages spinner getting stuck while scrolling up. Once stuck, the channel could no longer load older messages until the screen was reopened.

A page request fired while the previous page's result was still being applied repeated the previous cursor. It joined the identical request already in flight and got its result, but its begin() never got an end(), so the loading flag stayed set.

Closes AND-1557

Implementation

• The page loads call begin() inside the shared query call, through an internal ChatClient.queryChannelWithStart, so a request that joins one in flight skips both begin() and end().
• onQueryChannelResult calls end() after the page is applied, so the next request reads the new oldest message.
• MessagesPaginationManagerImpl.begin() and end() update the state atomically, and each end() clears only its own query's loading flag. A plain watch finishing during a page load no longer overwrites the page's result, and a newer page no longer hides the older page spinner.
• Notification updates and zero-limit queries skip begin() as they already skipped end().

Testing

Unit tests cover a request joining an identical one in flight, end() running after the page is applied, and overlapping begin()/end() calls in the pagination manager.

On a device, flick-scrolling up through about 250 pages: a request joined one in flight 8 times and the spinner never stuck. Before the fix, the same scrolling left it stuck.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved message pagination when older, newer, and around-message requests overlap, so one request no longer clears another’s loading state.
  • Pagination now finishes after messages are applied, and failed updates clear the relevant loading state without incorrectly marking history as fully loaded.
  • Notification updates and queries with no message limit no longer affect pagination.
  • When identical channel requests overlap, request-start callbacks run only for the call that starts the request.

[github-actions]

PR checklist ✅

All required conditions are satisfied:

• Title length is OK (or ignored by label).
• At least one pr: label exists.
• Sections ### Goal, ### Implementation, and ### Testing are filled, or the PR is bot-authored.
• An issue is linked (Linear ticket or GitHub issue), or the PR is bot-authored.

🎉 Great job! This PR is ready for review.

[github-actions]

SDK Size Comparison 📏

SDK	Before	After	Difference	Status
stream-chat-android-client	6.21 MB	6.21 MB	0.00 MB	🟢
stream-chat-android-ui-components	11.52 MB	11.52 MB	0.00 MB	🟢
stream-chat-android-compose	13.19 MB	13.19 MB	0.00 MB	🟢

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: Repository UI
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: 712b816a-9c98-4c6a-85aa-6b48acf15016

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 0edb219 and 0fc8485.

📒 Files selected for processing (6)

• stream-chat-android-client/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/ChatClient.kt
• stream-chat-android-client/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/logic/channel/internal/ChannelLogicImpl.kt
• stream-chat-android-client/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/state/channel/internal/MessagesPaginationState.kt
• stream-chat-android-client/src/test/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/ChatClientChannelApiTests.kt
• stream-chat-android-client/src/test/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/logic/channel/internal/ChannelLogicImplTest.kt
• stream-chat-android-client/src/test/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/state/channel/internal/MessagesPaginationManagerImplTest.kt

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Walkthrough

Channel queries now run start callbacks only for the call that executes a shared request. Pagination starts only for eligible queries and ends after result application. Pagination state updates preserve loading flags for other in-flight query types, including when a result fails.

Changes

Channel Query and Pagination

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Shared query start handling stream-chat-android-client/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/ChatClient.kt, stream-chat-android-client/src/test/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/ChatClientChannelApiTests.kt	queryChannel delegates request-start handling to queryChannelWithStart. A test verifies that identical pending calls return equal results and run the start callback once.
Pagination query lifecycle stream-chat-android-client/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/logic/channel/internal/ChannelLogicImpl.kt, stream-chat-android-client/src/test/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/logic/channel/internal/ChannelLogicImplTest.kt	Pagination starts only for non-notification queries with a nonzero message limit. Result application occurs before pagination ends. If application throws, the exception propagates and pagination ends with a failure result.
Concurrent pagination state updates stream-chat-android-client/src/main/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/state/channel/internal/MessagesPaginationState.kt, stream-chat-android-client/src/test/java/io/getstream/chat/android/client/internal/state/plugin/state/channel/internal/MessagesPaginationManagerImplTest.kt	Pagination state updates preserve unrelated loading flags. Success and failure clear only the flag for the completed request. Tests cover failures and overlapping query completions.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Caller
  participant ChannelLogicImpl
  participant ChatClient
  participant MessagesPaginationManagerImpl
  Caller->>ChannelLogicImpl: queryChannel
  ChannelLogicImpl->>ChatClient: queryChannelWithStart
  ChatClient->>ChannelLogicImpl: execute start callback
  ChannelLogicImpl->>MessagesPaginationManagerImpl: begin eligible pagination
  ChatClient-->>ChannelLogicImpl: query result
  ChannelLogicImpl->>ChannelLogicImpl: apply query result
  ChannelLogicImpl->>MessagesPaginationManagerImpl: end pagination with result
  ChannelLogicImpl-->>Caller: return query result

Loading

Suggested reviewers: velikovpetar

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 0fc84

No confirmed issue remains that should prevent merging.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 8.33% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 36 functions across 6 files.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the primary bug fix: preventing the older-message spinner from getting stuck while scrolling up.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description includes the goal, implementation details, linked issue, and testing results. It omits the UI Changes, contributor checklist, reviewer checklist, and GIF sections, but these are not cr…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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_{A rabbit watched the pages flow,
While loading flags stayed in their row.
A shared request began one time,
Then results crossed the finish line.
The bunny thumped, “All states now show!”}

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[andremion]

Looks good. One small nit inline, optional.

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
87.3% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud