[API Review] RT-24916 - TableView.scrollTo(TableColumn)

[John Hendrikx]

Hi,

I'm not specifically commenting on this API, but I do would like to 
comment on the usefulness of scrollTo() in general.

I've found that scrollTo() is very unreliable when cells are not 
fixed-height, and are still in flux (ie, images being loaded in the 
background) after the call to scrollTo().  Basically, what is happening is:

1) Create control, populate model
2) Call scrollTo() / focus() to restore the previous position the user 
left the control/cursor at
3) More images get loaded, cells change height and the View moves 
accordingly but completely ignores the last scrollTo() call and 
currently focused cell and ends up at some random location (with the 
focused item often not even in View).
4) User has to take a navigation action to get the focused item visible 
again

I donot know of any acceptable work-arounds, as the problem is mainly 
that the scrollTo() call is a fire-and-forget type action that will be 
completely lost when Cells are still in flux.  What it should do is 
remember this position and keep adjusting the View when no other form of 
input overrides the current location (keyboard, mouse scrolling, 
scrollbars).

Furthermore, scrollTo(), although a nice high level API, does not allow 
me to "return" to an exact previous state (where the exact scroll 
position of the control is restored).  I'd have to keep the control in 
memory to be able to provide this functionality, instead of just 
creating it when needed and positioning it back to where it was.  This 
occurs for example when Views are used for navigation purposes where 
when an item is selected a different set of items is displayed.  
Navigating back restores the previous set of items, but unfortunately 
not the exact position the user came from.

All this is currently leading me into the direction of reskinning the 
TreeView control, with the goal of providing  reliable and stable 
behavior when it comes to dealing with cells that are in flux.

--John

On 04/02/2013 09:25, Tom Schindl wrote:
> hi,
>
> We (Jonathan and myself) are requesting an API review to add the
> following public APIs:
>
> New APIS:
> ---------
> * ListView:
>    scrollTo(T) : void
>
> * TableView:
>    scrollTo(S) : void
>    scrollToColumn(TableColumn<S, ?>) : void
>    scrollToColumnIndex(int) : void
>    setOnScrollToColumn(EventHandler<ScrollToEvent<TableColumn<S, ?>>>): void
>    getOnScrollToColumn() : EventHandler<ScrollToEvent<TableColumn<S, ?>>>
>    onScrollToColumnProperty():
> ObjectProperty<EventHandler<ScrollToEvent<TableColumn<S, ?>>>>
>
> * TreeTableView
>    scrollToColumn(TableColumn<S, ?> column) : void
>    scrollToColumnIndex(int columnIndex) : void
>    setOnScrollToColumn(EventHandler<ScrollToEvent<TreeTableColumn<S, ?>>>
> value) : void
>    getOnScrollToColumn() : EventHandler<ScrollToEvent<TreeTableColumn<S, ?>>>
>    onScrollToColumnProperty() :
> ObjectProperty<EventHandler<ScrollToEvent<TreeTableColumn<S, ?>>>>
>
> * ScrollToEvent:
>    static <T extends TableColumnBase<?, ?>> scrollToColumn() :
> EventType<ScrollToEvent<T>>
>
> Modified APIS:
> --------------
> To align better we'd like to change the ScrollToEvent-API to be
> consitent and use static accessor methods instead of public static fields:
>    * SCROLL_TO_NODE => scrollToNode() : EventType<ScrollToEvent<Node>>
>    * SCROLL_TO_TOP_INDEX => scrollToTopIndex() :
> EventType<ScrollToEvent<Integer>>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Jonathan + Tom
>