fix: render empty report preview placeholders without waiting for width

[emkhalid]

Explanation of Change

This PR $ #85769 by removing the unnecessary width gate for placeholder-only preview states in the money request report preview.

Previously, empty/access placeholder states were still forced through the loading branch while currentWidth was 0, so the preview briefly rendered the taller loading container before shrinking to the placeholder. That height change caused the visible jump in workspace chat.

This change keeps the loading state only for the real carousel-loading case and renders the empty/access placeholders immediately when those states are already known.

Fixed Issues

$ #85769
PROPOSAL: #85769 (comment)

Tests

1. Open the app and sign in.
2. Open a workspace chat.
3. Create an empty report.
4. Create another empty report.
5. Verify the previously rendered report preview does not jump or shrink after the new empty report is created.
6. Verify the empty placeholder renders immediately instead of briefly showing the taller loading state first.
7. Verify previews that already have transactions still render normally.
8. Verify that no errors appear in the JS console.

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

1. Open a workspace chat that contains an empty report preview.
2. Turn off the network connection.
3. Re-open the same workspace chat or navigate away and back.
4. Verify the empty preview still renders without a visible jump.
5. Verify that no errors appear in the JS console.

QA Steps

Same as Tests.

// TODO: These must be filled out, or the issue title must include "[No QA]."

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
  • I added steps for local testing in the Tests section
  • I added steps for the expected offline behavior in the Offline steps section
  • I added steps for Staging and/or Production testing in the QA steps section
  • I added steps to cover failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
  • I tested this PR with a High Traffic account against the staging or production API to ensure there are no regressions (e.g. long loading states that impact usability).
• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I ran the tests on all platforms & verified they passed on:
  • Android: Native
  • Android: mWeb Chrome
  • iOS: Native
  • iOS: mWeb Safari
  • MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• I verified there are no console errors (if there's a console error not related to the PR, report it or open an issue for it to be fixed)
• I followed proper code patterns (see Reviewing the code)
  • I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick)
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  • I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
  • I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
    • If any non-english text was added/modified, I used JaimeGPT to get English > Spanish translation. I then posted it in #expensify-open-source and it was approved by an internal Expensify engineer. Link to Slack message:
  • I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
  • I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
  • I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
  • I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
• If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
• I followed the guidelines as stated in the Review Guidelines
• I tested other components that can be impacted by my changes (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar are working as expected)
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• I verified any variables that can be defined as constants (ie. in CONST.ts or at the top of the file that uses the constant) are defined as such
• I verified that if a function's arguments changed that all usages have also been updated correctly
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  • The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
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  • A similar style doesn't already exist
  • The style can't be created with an existing StyleUtils function (i.e. StyleUtils.getBackgroundAndBorderStyle(theme.componentBG))
• If new assets were added or existing ones were modified, I verified that:
  • The assets are optimized and compressed (for SVG files, run npm run compress-svg)
  • The assets load correctly across all supported platforms.
• If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
• If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
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• If the PR modifies a component or page that can be accessed by a direct deeplink, I verified that the code functions as expected when the deeplink is used - from a logged in and logged out account.
• If the PR modifies the UI (e.g. new buttons, new UI components, changing the padding/spacing/sizing, moving components, etc) or modifies the form input styles:
  • I verified that all the inputs inside a form are aligned with each other.
  • I added Design label and/or tagged @Expensify/design so the design team can review the changes.
• If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
• I added unit tests for any new feature or bug fix in this PR to help automatically prevent regressions in this user flow.
• If the main branch was merged into this PR after a review, I tested again and verified the outcome was still expected according to the Test steps.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

no-preview-jump-android-netive.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

no-preview-jump-android-web.mov

iOS: Native

no-preview-jump-ios-native.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

no-preview-jump-ios-web.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

no-preview-jump-mac-os.mov

[melvin-bot]

@ZhenjaHorbach Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[github-actions]

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[chatgpt-codex-connector]

Preserve deferred loading before showing empty placeholder

This change bypasses shouldShowLoadingDeferred whenever shouldShowEmptyPlaceholder is true, but the component explicitly documents that hasOnceLoadedReportActions can flip to true before transactions are populated. In that transition (hasOnceLoadedReportActions=true, transactions=[], deferred still true), the preview now renders the empty placeholder immediately and can briefly show an incorrect empty state before real transactions appear, causing a visual flicker/regression on non-empty reports.

Useful? React with 👍 / 👎.

[emkhalid]

Addressed

[emkhalid]

@ZhenjaHorbach I’ve finished the implementation, completed the required checks I could perform, and updated the PR description/checklist accordingly.

This is my first PR in this repo, so if there is anything else you’d like me to update or any repo-specific step I’m still missing, please let me know and I’ll address it right away. I’d appreciate your review whenever you have time.

thanks

[ZhenjaHorbach]

Thank you for your submission, we really appreciate it. Like many open-source projects, we ask that you sign our Contributor License Agreement before we can accept your contribution. You can sign the CLA by just posting a Pull Request Comment same as the below format.

I have read the CLA Document and I hereby sign the CLA

You can retrigger this bot by commenting recheck in this Pull Request. Posted by the CLA Assistant Lite bot.

@emkhalid
Don't forget to check this comment

And thanks for the PR
I will review the PR tomorrow!

[joekaufmanexpensify]

Makes sense!