Merge ReorderController into ListController

[mjauvin]

Currently working for SimpleTree and Sortable models. Won't work with NestedTree.

[mjauvin]

@LukeTowers @bennothommo @jaxwilko this work for SimpleTree and Sortable models. Won't work with NestedTree.

Any idea how we could implement this for NestedTree (since the List widget is way different than the current ReorderController)

Do we even WANT to make this work for NestedTree in the list widget?

[bennothommo]

Having a think about this abstractly, I'm now a bit 50/50 on reordering as it stands.

The problems we're going to face are:

• People are going to try reordering lists with hundreds or even thousands of records, how are we going to handle these scenarios?
• Reordering in nested trees has to span multiple directions - not only do items have to be reordered in the same level, but potentially reordered up the hierarchy within other "branches" of the tree, or within parent categories, grandparent categories and so on.
• People are going to try reordering lists that have another sort order used on the list, such as ordering by name or date. I think in terms of usability, we want people to be able to still use sorting normally through the table headers, but this will mean that any manual ordering will be overridden. A simple solution would be a "reorder mode" which automatically sorts the list by the sortable column(s) and enables the reordering UI.
• Reordering through drag/drag UI implies a single item being reordered one at a time. This is going to be cumbersome and unwieldly if someone wants to reorder multiple records.
• Realistically, we want the same user experience for reordering, regardless of the type of storage of the data, whether it be sortable, simple tree or nested tree, otherwise it could be frustrating to people who don't know the difference (ie. clients).

I don't have a potential solution right now. :(

[mjauvin]

@bennothommo

People are going to try reordering lists with hundreds or even thousands of records, how are we going to handle these scenarios?

I understand your concern, but what's the difference with the current ReorderController?

Reordering in nested trees has to span multiple directions - not only do items have to be reordered in the same level, but potentially reordered up the hierarchy within other "branches" of the tree, or within parent categories, grandparent categories and so on.

The current ReorderController supports this, we could add a button that opens a popup to reorder nested trees with a different list markup maybe?

People are going to try reordering lists that have another sort order used on the list, such as ordering by name or date. I think in terms of usability, we want people to be able to still use sorting normally through the table headers, but this will mean that any manual ordering will be overridden. A simple solution would be a "reorder mode" which automatically sorts the list by the sortable column(s) and enables the reordering UI.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Reordering through drag/drag UI implies a single item being reordered one at a time. This is going to be cumbersome and unwieldly if someone wants to reorder multiple records.

Again, I agree but this is still the case with the current ReorderController.

Realistically, we want the same user experience for reordering, regardless of the type of storage of the data, whether it be sortable, simple tree or nested tree, otherwise it could be frustrating to people who don't know the difference (ie. clients).

Maybe the "reorder mode" you suggested above could trigger a change in the list markup to use what the ReorderController currently uses? Once the list is reordered, switching the "reorder mode" off would bring back the standard list markup.

[bennothommo]

@mjauvin I meant the above more as a brain dump of problems that I foresee with reordering in general, as I imagine this PR along with the Sortable Relations trait is all towards implementing sortable relations within the list widget?

The reason I've added it here is because if we decide to pivot our implementation based on what we discuss here, it might be worth trying to catch it early and perhaps set it up within this PR.

[LukeTowers]

@bennothommo with regards to

People are going to try reordering lists with hundreds or even thousands of records, how are we going to handle these scenarios?

I believe I've mentioned it in one of these issues but I'm not really concerned with that use case. There's some good articles out there that make the very valid point that if you are dealing with a large number of records you almost certainly do not want to be supporting people manually ordering them. Instead, more care should be taken with available options for how they can be sorted when displayed and perhaps considering a sort of enhanced prioritization sorting method like "pinned" or "flagged" records that get booted to the top.

[LukeTowers]

@mjauvin I'm fine with your responses, what else do you need from @bennothommo or myself?

[mjauvin]

@LukeTowers I'll keep working on it then.

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[mjauvin]

I won't be pursuing this, at least not this way.

[LukeTowers]

What way do you want to accomplish this @mjauvin?

[mjauvin]

I don't know yet.

[LukeTowers]

@mjauvin I'm open to working on this, have a client project that will need it very soon.

What did you end up doing for your projects for this functionality?

[mjauvin]

@LukeTowers I built a custom behavior that I use in my controllers. I can share the code if you're interested.

[LukeTowers]

@mjauvin sure, that would be great!

[mjauvin]

@mjauvin sure, that would be great!

There you go.

files.zip