Ask VA | Updating regex for inquiry ID to be more future-proof

[jerekshoe]

Summary

After talking to the CRM team, we found out that the oldest inquiry IDs end in a 5 digit sequence and the newest ones end in a 7 digit sequence. It's unlikely to happen soon, but at some point the end segment of the inquiry ID may end up being 8 digits long. In order to be as flexible as possible, this PR updates the end segment to accept any sequence of digits between 5 and 10 digits long (so 5, 6, 7 and 8 will work, while leaving us with extra leeway for future-proofing)

• This work is behind a feature toggle (flipper): NO
• (Summarize the changes that have been made to the platform)
• (If bug, how to reproduce)
• (What is the solution, why is this the solution?)
• (Which team do you work for, does your team own the maintenance of this component?)
• (If introducing a flipper, what is the success criteria being targeted?)

Related issue(s)

• https://va.ghe.com/software/ask-va/issues/2324

Testing done

Specs have been updated to remove a now-valid case of 8 digits for the end segment

• New code is covered by unit tests
• Describe what the old behavior was prior to the change
• Describe the steps required to verify your changes are working as expected. Exclusively stating 'Specs run' is NOT acceptable as appropriate testing
• If this work is behind a flipper:
  • Tests need to be written for both the flipper on and flipper off scenarios. Docs.
  • What is the testing plan for rolling out the feature?

Screenshots

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What areas of the site does it impact?

(Describe what parts of the site are impacted andifcode touched other areas)

Acceptance criteria

• I fixed|updated|added unit tests and integration tests for each feature (if applicable).
• No error nor warning in the console.
• Events are being sent to the appropriate logging solution
• Documentation has been updated (link to documentation)
• No sensitive information (i.e. PII/credentials/internal URLs/etc.) is captured in logging, hardcoded, or specs
• Feature/bug has a monitor built into Datadog (if applicable)
• If app impacted requires authentication, did you login to a local build and verify all authenticated routes work as expected
• I added a screenshot of the developed feature

Requested Feedback

(OPTIONAL)What should the reviewers know in addition to the above. Is there anything specific you wish the reviewer to assist with. Do you have any concerns with this PR, why?

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates Ask VA inquiry ID validation to support newer/longer trailing numeric sequences and adjusts request specs accordingly, so /inquiries/:id/status can accept evolving CRM inquiry number formats.

Changes:

• Broadened inquiry ID regex to allow a trailing digit segment of 5+ digits.
• Updated the controller’s validation comment/error text to reflect the new expected format.
• Updated request spec “invalid id format” examples to remove now-valid cases.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
modules/ask_va_api/app/controllers/ask_va_api/v0/inquiries_controller.rb	Expands INQUIRY_ID_FORMAT and updates validation messaging for inquiry ID format.
modules/ask_va_api/spec/requests/ask_va_api/v0/inquiries_spec.rb	Adjusts invalid inquiry ID cases to align with the expanded format.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

modules/ask_va_api/spec/requests/ask_va_api/v0/inquiries_spec.rb:499

• This spec update removes previously-invalid 5- and 8-digit trailing segments from the “bad id” list, but it doesn’t add a positive assertion that 5- and 8-digit inquiry IDs are accepted. Consider adding explicit examples that GET /status succeeds for a 5-digit and an 8-digit trailing segment to lock in the intended new behavior.

    context 'when the id format is invalid' do
      %w[invalid 12345 A-1234567-123456 A-12345678-1234 A-12345678-12L4567 A12345678123456].each do |bad_id|
        it "returns bad_request for '#{bad_id}'" do
          get "/ask_va_api/v0/inquiries/#{bad_id}/status"
          expect(response).to have_http_status(:bad_request)
          expect(JSON.parse(response.body)['error']).to include('Invalid inquiry ID format')
        end

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

modules/ask_va_api/spec/requests/ask_va_api/v0/inquiries_spec.rb:500

• This invalid-ID spec now treats an 11-digit trailing segment as invalid, which implicitly matches the new 5–10 digit controller regex. If the intended support is only 5–8 digits per the PR description, add coverage for 9+ digits being rejected (and keep the invalid examples aligned with the controller’s actual range).

    context 'when the id format is invalid' do
      %w[invalid 12345 A-1234567-123456 A-12345678-1234 A-12345678-12345678901 A-12345678-12L4567
         A12345678123456].each do |bad_id|
        it "returns bad_request for '#{bad_id}'" do
          get "/ask_va_api/v0/inquiries/#{bad_id}/status"
          expect(response).to have_http_status(:bad_request)
          expect(JSON.parse(response.body)['error']).to include('Invalid inquiry ID format')
        end

[mfloyd-iat]

LGTM - this was the adjustment he mentioned yesterday to expand the digits to allow for production traffic numbers as they differ from staging traffic numbers

[acastillo-ironarch]

LGTM! Nice work getting the details hashed out