Editor preferences are saved in database every time the Settings sidebar opens/closes

[miksansegundo]

Description

I wonder if this is a bug because a request to /wp/v2/users/me is made every time the Settings sidebar opens/closes. It seems that it is not needed because every update on the preferences modal also triggers a request.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

• Go to the Site editor

• Click on the Settings icon to open or close the sidebar

• From the Chrome Dev Tools, verify a request to /wp/v2/users/me is made every time to save the preferences

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

Click on the Settings icon to open or close the sidebar and verify a request is made:

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/assets/1881481/e6d5dc5c-8447-46d2-94c7-8edbb9e80e97

Change any preferences from the modal and verify a request is also made:

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/assets/1881481/7f31f98f-bf48-4cb9-a48b-e39e3cab6078

Environment info

• WordPress 6.5.2
• Gutenberg 18.2.0

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

Yes

[hbhalodia]

Hello @miksansegundo, I do not think this is an actual issue, but likely a kind of feature for the user. If you can see that, once you close/open the sidebar and then close the site and reopen/reload the site, the sidebar is persisted because it saves your preference to the DB and local storage as well with the option "isComplementaryAreaVisible":true in key WP_PREFERENCES_USER_{user_id}. So not the preferences are the actual preferences, but the open/close for the sidebar is also a preference for the user.

Thank You.