fix(api): avoid re-crawling issue link on update when url is unchanged

[Tyagiquamar]

Description

In IssueLinkViewSet.partial_update, the background task crawl_work_item_link_title was being dispatched unconditionally on every partial update. When crawl_work_item_link_title runs, it fetches page metadata (like the HTML <title>) and replaces the link's metadata dictionary. This caused:

1. Overwriting user-defined metadata / custom titles whenever an issue link was edited.
2. Unnecessary outbound HTTP requests and Celery worker load when fields other than url (e.g. title or metadata) were updated.

This change checks whether serializer.data.get("url") changed compared to the previous URL on the model instance before enqueuing crawl_work_item_link_title.delay.

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• Feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Improvement (change that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• Code refactoring
• Performance improvements
• Documentation update

Test Scenarios

• Added unit regression tests in plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py:
  • test_partial_update_does_not_recrawl_when_url_unchanged: Verifies that updating link title/metadata without changing the URL does not schedule crawl_work_item_link_title.
  • test_partial_update_triggers_crawl_when_url_changed: Verifies that updating the URL to a new value schedules crawl_work_item_link_title with the new URL.
• Ran test suite and lint checks:
  • pytest plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py (2 passed)
  • pytest plane/tests/unit/views/test_base_dispatch.py (7 passed)
  • ruff check apps/api/plane/app/views/issue/link.py apps/api/plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py (All checks passed)

References

Fixes #9674

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Link title crawling now runs only when a work item link’s URL changes.
  • Updating link titles or metadata without changing the URL no longer triggers unnecessary background processing.

• Tests

  • Added regression coverage for URL changes and updates that leave the URL unchanged.

[coldtea-pr-lens]

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🟢 +0 new · 🟠 ~2 changed · 🔴 -0 removed · 2 flows · 3 files · commit 787488c

Architecture

2 components touched across 3 lanes.

Open full size

Data flow

Updating issue link URL · Updating link title or metadata without URL change

Open full size

The other flows — 1 sequence

Updating link title or metadata without URL change

Drill down

Application Services — 2 components

🟡 CHANGED Core Domain API (plane.app)

Handles issue link partial updates and verifies whether the URL changed before dispatching crawler tasks.

• apps/api/plane/app/views/issue/link.py:73-83
• apps/api/plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py:1-212

🟡 CHANGED Public REST API (v1)

Processes public REST API link patch requests, gating background crawler tasks on URL change.

• apps/api/plane/api/views/issue.py:1307-1316

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 55bf330 and 787488c.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• apps/api/plane/api/views/issue.py
• apps/api/plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• apps/api/plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Issue-link updates now record the previous URL and schedule crawl_work_item_link_title only when the URL changes. Regression tests cover unchanged and changed URL updates for both update endpoints.

Changes

Issue-link crawling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Gate crawling on URL changes apps/api/plane/app/views/issue/link.py, apps/api/plane/api/views/issue.py, apps/api/plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py	Both update endpoints compare the saved URL with the previous URL before scheduling the crawl task. Tests verify that unchanged URLs do not schedule crawling and changed URLs schedule it with the new URL.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 78748

Issue-link metadata-only updates now preserve caller-provided values without triggering a title crawl, while URL changes continue to refresh titles. The covered behavior is ready to merge.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 30.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 10 functions across 3 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 and concisely describes the primary change: preventing unnecessary issue-link re-crawling when the URL is unchanged.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is complete and relevant. It explains the bug, identifies the fix, marks the change as a bug fix, documents test scenarios, and references issue #9674. Screenshots are not required for…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The changes satisfy issue #9674 by preserving metadata on non-URL updates, avoiding crawling when the URL is unchanged, retaining crawling for changed URLs, and adding regression tests for both cases.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes are within scope. The additional conditional logic in IssueLinkDetailAPIEndpoint.patch addresses the same re-crawling defect through a related update path, and the accompanying tests valid…

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@apps/api/plane/app/views/issue/link.py`:
- Around line 82-83: Update IssueLinkDetailAPIEndpoint.patch so
crawl_work_item_link_title.delay is enqueued only after confirming the persisted
issue-link URL changed, while preserving normal handling for unchanged URLs and
metadata-only updates.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between da1a7ab and 55bf330.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• apps/api/plane/app/views/issue/link.py
• apps/api/plane/tests/unit/views/test_issue_link.py

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 9 remain after this review.