Remove depracations + add chat ping loop

src/WAConnection/0.Base.ts

@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ export class WAConnection extends EventEmitter {
         maxRetries: 10,
         connectCooldownMs: 4000,
         phoneResponseTime: 15_000,
-        alwaysUseTakeover: true
+        alwaysUseTakeover: true,
+        queryChatsTillReceived: true
     }
     /** When to auto-reconnect */
     autoReconnect = ReconnectMode.onConnectionLost 
@@ -62,28 +63,23 @@ export class WAConnection extends EventEmitter {
     messageLog: { tag: string, json: string, fromMe: boolean, binaryTags?: any[] }[] = []
 
     maxCachedMessages = 50
-    /** 
-     * @deprecated 
-     * does not do anything
-     * */
-    loadProfilePicturesForChatsAutomatically = false
 
     lastChatsReceived: Date
     chats = new KeyedDB (Utils.waChatKey(false), value => value.jid)
     contacts: { [k: string]: WAContact } = {}
-    blocklist: string[] = [];
+    blocklist: string[] = []
 
     /** Data structure of tokens & IDs used to establish one's identiy to WhatsApp Web */
-    protected authInfo: AuthenticationCredentials = null
+    protected authInfo: AuthenticationCredentials
     /** Curve keys to initially authenticate */
     protected curveKeys: { private: Uint8Array; public: Uint8Array }
     /** The websocket connection */
-    protected conn: WS = null
+    protected conn: WS
     protected msgCount = 0
     protected keepAliveReq: NodeJS.Timeout
     protected encoder = new Encoder()
     protected decoder = new Decoder()
-    protected phoneCheckInterval = undefined
+    protected phoneCheckInterval
     protected phoneCheckListeners = 0
 
     protected referenceDate = new Date () // used for generating tags
@@ -99,6 +95,7 @@ export class WAConnection extends EventEmitter {
         () => this.state === 'connecting' && this.endConnection(DisconnectReason.timedOut)
     )
     protected messagesDebounceTimeout = Utils.debouncedTimeout(2000)
+    protected chatsDebounceTimeout = Utils.debouncedTimeout(10_000)
     /**
      * Connect to WhatsAppWeb
      * @param options the connect options
@@ -432,6 +429,7 @@ export class WAConnection extends EventEmitter {
         this.initTimeout && clearTimeout (this.initTimeout)
         this.connectionDebounceTimeout.cancel()
         this.messagesDebounceTimeout.cancel()
+        this.chatsDebounceTimeout.cancel()
         this.keepAliveReq && clearInterval(this.keepAliveReq)
         this.phoneCheckListeners = 0
         this.clearPhoneCheckInterval ()

src/WAConnection/1.Validation.ts

@@ -107,12 +107,26 @@ export class WAConnection extends Base {
      */
     sendPostConnectQueries () {
         this.sendBinary (['query', {type: 'contacts', epoch: '1'}, null], [ WAMetric.queryContact, WAFlag.ignore ])
-        this.sendBinary (['query', {type: 'chat', epoch: '1'}, null], [ WAMetric.queryChat, WAFlag.ignore ])
         this.sendBinary (['query', {type: 'status', epoch: '1'}, null], [ WAMetric.queryStatus, WAFlag.ignore ])
         this.sendBinary (['query', {type: 'quick_reply', epoch: '1'}, null], [ WAMetric.queryQuickReply, WAFlag.ignore ])
         this.sendBinary (['query', {type: 'label', epoch: '1'}, null], [ WAMetric.queryLabel, WAFlag.ignore ])
         this.sendBinary (['query', {type: 'emoji', epoch: '1'}, null], [ WAMetric.queryEmoji, WAFlag.ignore ])
         this.sendBinary (['action', {type: 'set', epoch: '1'}, [['presence', {type: Presence.available}, null]] ], [ WAMetric.presence, WAFlag.available ])
+        
+        if(this.connectOptions.queryChatsTillReceived) {
+            this.chatsDebounceTimeout.start(
+                undefined, 
+                () => {
+                    this.logger.debug('pinging with chats query')
+                    this.sendChatsQuery(this.msgCount)
+                }
+            )
+        } else {
+            this.sendChatsQuery(1)
+        }
+    }
+    protected sendChatsQuery(epoch: number) {
+        return this.sendBinary(['query', {type: 'chat', epoch: epoch.toString()}, null], [ WAMetric.queryChat, WAFlag.ignore ])
     }
     /** 
      * Refresh QR Code 

src/WAConnection/3.Connect.ts

@@ -94,12 +94,13 @@ export class WAConnection extends Base {
                     this.logger.info(`connected to WhatsApp Web server, authenticating via ${reconnectID ? 'reconnect' : 'takeover'}`)
 
                     try {
+                        this.connectionDebounceTimeout.setInterval(this.connectOptions.maxIdleTimeMs)
                         const authResult = await this.authenticate(reconnectID)
                         
                         this.conn
                             .removeAllListeners('error')
                             .removeAllListeners('close')
-                        this.connectionDebounceTimeout.start(this.connectOptions.maxIdleTimeMs)
+                        this.connectionDebounceTimeout.start()
                         resolve(authResult as WAOpenResult)
                     } catch (error) {
                         reject(error)

src/WAConnection/4.Events.ts

@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ export class WAConnection extends Base {
         // chats received
         this.on('CB:response,type:chat', json => {
             if (json[1].duplicate || !json[2]) return
+            
+            this.chatsDebounceTimeout.cancel()
             const chats = new KeyedDB(this.chatOrderingKey, c => c.jid)
 
             json[2].forEach(([item, chat]: [any, WAChat]) => {

src/WAConnection/Constants.ts

@@ -85,11 +85,6 @@ export enum ReconnectMode {
 export type WALoadChatOptions = {
     searchString?: string
     custom?: (c: WAChat) => boolean
-    /** 
-     * @deprecated
-     * does not do anything now
-     */
-    loadProfilePicture?: boolean
 }
 export type WAConnectOptions = {
     /** fails the connection if no data is received for X seconds */
@@ -105,6 +100,11 @@ export type WAConnectOptions = {
     fetchAgent?: Agent
     /** Always uses takeover for connections */
     alwaysUseTakeover?: boolean
+    /** 
+     * Sometimes WA does not send the chats, 
+     * this keeps pinging the phone to send the chats over
+     * */
+    queryChatsTillReceived?: boolean
 }
 /** from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3809401/what-is-a-good-regular-expression-to-match-a-url */
 export const URL_REGEX = /[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%._+~#=]{1,256}\.[a-zA-Z0-9()]{1,6}\b([-a-zA-Z0-9()@:%_+.~#?&//=]*)?/gi