fix: add common method for clearing chats initiated by the user clicking "clear chat" button

[drizco]

This pull request refactors how chat messages are cleared in the AI chat feature by consolidating the logic into a new thunk, improving maintainability and ensuring that analytics and the CLEAR_CHAT event are consistently handled. The main change is the introduction of a new clearChatMessagesByUser thunk, which is now used across multiple components to standardize chat clearing behavior.

Chat Clearing Refactor:

• Added a new thunk clearChatMessagesByUser in clearChatMessagesByUser.ts that handles clearing chat messages, logging the event, and sending analytics in a single action.
• Updated exports in thunks/index.ts to include the new clearChatMessagesByUser thunk.

Component Updates:

• Updated AichatView.tsx to use clearChatMessagesByUser instead of dispatching multiple actions separately when clearing chat messages.
• Updated AiTutor2Chat.tsx to use the new clearChatMessagesByUser thunk for clearing chat messages, ensuring consistency across components.

Screen.Recording.2025-09-12.at.9.37.00.AM.mov

Links

• Jira: https://codedotorg.atlassian.net/browse/LABS-1563

Testing story

Deployment strategy

Follow-up work

Privacy

Security

Caching

PR Creation Checklist:

• Tests provide adequate coverage
• Privacy impacts have been documented
• Security impacts have been documented
• Code is well-commented
• New features are translatable or updates will not break translations
• Relevant documentation has been added or updated
• User impact is well-understood and desirable
• Follow-up work items (including potential tech debt) are tracked and linked

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR centralizes chat clearing functionality by extracting the clear chat logic into a dedicated thunk action that handles state reset, event logging, and analytics in one place.

• Introduces a new clearChatMessagesByUser thunk that combines chat clearing, event logging, and analytics
• Refactors both AichatView.tsx and AiTutor2Chat.tsx to use the new centralized clearing method
• Replaces direct dispatcher calls with a unified approach for user-initiated chat clearing

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
apps/src/aichat/redux/thunks/clearChatMessagesByUser.ts	New thunk that combines chat clearing, event logging, and analytics
apps/src/aichat/redux/thunks/index.ts	Exports the new clearChatMessagesByUser thunk
apps/src/lab2/views/components/AiTutor2Chat.tsx	Updates to use new centralized clearing method and adds useCallback
apps/src/aichat/views/AichatView.tsx	Simplifies onClear callback to use new centralized method

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[cnbrenci]

Looks great! Thank you!

The wording in the "You cleared the chat workspace" notification feels slightly weird to me for Tutor, but these notifications in general can be addressed separately. There's another conversation going on about a different notification event here https://codedotorg.slack.com/archives/C08S29NDZ5E/p1757631350402479

[edcodedotorg]

Thanks for the quick fix! I know @sanchitmalhotra126's goal is to limit or remove our use of redux throughout the chat infrastructure, so that's something we should discuss moving forward (I certainly don't have all the details). But this fixes a major bug and we already make heavy use of redux, so I'd say we can just keep the need for that discussion in mind for future changes/fixes. 🚀