How to run time add classes, attributes, and styles for cells?

[masaoliou]

I need to dynamically add classes, attributes, and styles for cells. According to examples row-template.html and dom-elements.html, it seems to me that sortable-table requires occurences of and <td></td> to be staticly coded like this:

<sortable-column name="fruit">Fruit</sortable-column>
<sortable-column name="alice">Alice</sortable-column>

<td style="width:10%;"><input type="number" value="{{record.row.alice}}" style="text-align:right;"></td>

My problem is that these occurences are unknown in design time. They are determined by input JSON data. Hence I have this clumsy design:

<sortable-table rowTemplate="rt">
    <template repeat="{{MyData.columns}}">
        <sortable-column class="{{color}}">{{title}}</sortable-column>
    </template>
    <template id="rt" bind="{{MyData.data as data}}">
        <template repeat="{{c,i in data}}">
            <td><input type="{{MyData.columns[i].type}}" required?="{{MyData.columns[i].required}}" value="{{record.row[i]}}" style="text-align:{{MyData.columns[i].type == 'number' ? 'right' : 'left'}};"></td>
        </template>
    </template>
</sortable-table>

<script>
document.querySelector("sortable-table").MyData={
    columns:[
        {title:"fruit",type:"text",color:"red",required:true}
        ,{title:"alice",type:"number",color:"blue",required:true}
        ,{title:"bill",type:"number",color:"yellow"}
        ,{title:"casey",type:"number",color:"green"}
    ]
    ,data:[
        ["apple",4,10,2],["banana",0,4,0],["grape",2,3,5],["pear",4,2,8],["strawberry",0,14,0]
    ]
};
</script>

Notice that I avoid adding column names in input JSON data in order to save some bandwidth.

My code has one big issue - the value entered by user in <input></input> loses 2-way data binding!

What is the correct design patten in my case?
Thank you!

[stevenrskelton]

I couldn't quite get your code to work as you explain it, but I'll explain how I would do it and hopefully it works for your use-case.

Assigning to sortable-table.MyData is a bit heavy-handed, it's probably better to stick to the component's exposed API.

<template id="example2" bind>
    <sortable-table rowTemplate="rt" data="{{myData}}" args="{{myArgs}}">
        <template repeat="{{myColumns}}">
            <sortable-column class="{{color}}">{{title}}</sortable-column>
        </template>
        <template id="rt">
            <template repeat="{{column,i in columns}}">
                <td><input type="{{args[i].type}}" required?="{{args[i].required}}" value="{{record.row[i]}}" style="text-align:{{args[i].type == 'number' ? 'right' : 'left'}};"></td>
            </template>
        </template>
    </sortable-table>
    <json-stringify data="{{myData}}" id="dump"></json-stringify><button onclick="document.getElementById('dump').dataChanged();">Refresh</button>
</template>
<script>
window.addEventListener('polymer-ready', function(){
    document.getElementById('example2').model = {
        myColumns:[
            {title:"fruit"},
            {title:"alice"},
            {title:"bill"},
            {title:"casey"}
        ],
        myArgs:[
            {type:"text",color:"red",required:true},
            {type:"number",color:"blue",required:true},
            {type:"number",color:"yellow"},
            {type:"number",color:"green"}
        ],
        myData:[
            ["apple",4,10,2],["banana",0,4,0],["grape",2,3,5],["pear",4,2,8],["strawberry",0,14,0]
        ]
    };
});
</script>

I was working on column level args, but never finished them. They would make things a lot simpler - instead of worrying about indexes you could reference them directly from the column; ie: column.args.required.

In my example I renamed myColumns (and created a second myArgs array) to make it clear that the columns in the rt template is being passed in by the sortable-table code, and comes from the parsed sortable-column nodes. But if you aren't confused with how template variables are scoped, reuse names:

<template id="example2" bind>
    <sortable-table rowTemplate="rt" data="{{data}}" args="{{columns}}">
        <template repeat="{{columns}}">
            <sortable-column class="{{color}}">{{title}}</sortable-column>
        </template>
        <template id="rt">
            <template repeat="{{column,i in columns}}">
                <td><input type="{{args[i].type}}" required?="{{args[i].required}}" value="{{record.row[i]}}" style="text-align:{{args[i].type == 'number' ? 'right' : 'left'}};"></td>
            </template>
        </template>
    </sortable-table>
    <json-stringify data="{{data}}" id="dump"></json-stringify><button onclick="document.getElementById('dump').dataChanged();">Refresh</button>
</template>

<script>
window.addEventListener('polymer-ready', function(){
    document.getElementById('example2').model = {
        columns:[
            {title:"fruit",type:"text",color:"red",required:true}
            ,{title:"alice",type:"number",color:"blue",required:true}
            ,{title:"bill",type:"number",color:"yellow"}
            ,{title:"casey",type:"number",color:"green"}
        ]
        ,data:[
            ["apple",4,10,2],["banana",0,4,0],["grape",2,3,5],["pear",4,2,8],["strawberry",0,14,0]
        ]
    };
});
</script>

I'm not sure what you mean about breaking 2-way binding... the underlying arrays are passed by reference so you are likely working with the same data but it's just not triggering a data refresh. By default only indexes are observed for changes (array[i]), and not particular elements within indexes (array[i].field won't trigger a change). This is a whole different can of worms 😈 and is how Polymer normally works.

[masaoliou]

Thank you very much for taking time explaining! I learn much from your kind help.

[masaoliou]

Class my-class does not appear in DOM with this code:

<template repeat="{{columns}}">
    <sortable-column class="my-class">{{title}}</sortable-column>
</template>

What is the correct way to inject classes into <th></th>?

[masaoliou]

Never mind!
Chromium's debugger shows the following correct DOM tree for the aforementioned code:

<sortable-column class="my-class">fruit</sortable-column>
<sortable-column class="my-class">alice</sortable-column>
<sortable-column class="my-class">bill</sortable-column>
<sortable-column class="my-class">casey</sortable-column>

while it displays empty child node under <template repeat="{{columns}}"> for my real use case like this:

<template repeat="{{columns}}">
  #document-fragment   
</template>

Perhaps I am misusing property columns (and naming?). I am going to do some research and try to figure out the whole concept.

[masonlouchart]

If the class to be defined is constant, you can set an ID on the sortable-table and apply your style using the CSS rules through the Shadow DOM.

[masaoliou]

Ooops! I closed my question too soon! My last question remains effective - How to dynamically add classes to element <th></th>?

The following code

<template repeat="{{columns}}">
    <sortable-column class="{{class}}">{{title}}</sortable-column>
</template>

now creates child nodes within <template repeat="{{columns}}"> like this:

<template repeat="{{columns}}">
  <sortable-column class="red">fruit</sortable-column>
  <sortable-column class="blue">alice</sortable-column>
  <sortable-column class="yellow">bill</sortable-column>
  <sortable-column class="black">casey</sortable-column>
</template>

However, this correct result is not quite useful. What I need is to
add classes to element <th></th> instead, like this:

<thead>
  <tr>
    <th class="red">fruit</th>
    <th class="blue">alice</th>
    <th class="yellow">bill</th>
    <th class="blck">casey</th>
  </tr>
</thead>

@LM450N: The classes to be added are not constants. Thank you!

[masonlouchart]

I did not tried this but I think, if the sortable-column component does not allow use a template to do that, you will have to extend the sortable-column and add a thClass attribute for example.

[stevenrskelton]

I left out support for setting class and thClass attributes in sortable-column because I was hoping there would be a better solution using dynamic CSS or templates.

Web Components "best practices" are non-existent, I probably should add support for it because it looks like it could help some of you out.

[masaoliou]

Please close this issue for me after implementing this feature to which I am looking forward.

[masaoliou]

I seem to have no ending questions :-(

Running the above two examples you kindly provided, I change numeric value in <input> element. The JSON data type in attribute <sortable-table> data bound to <input type="number"> is automatically altered to "text" data type, as shown by <json-stringify> dumps:

Original data:

[
    ["apple",4,10,2],
    ["banana",0,4,0],
    ["grape",2,3,5],
    ["pear",4,2,8],
    ["strawberry",0,14,0]
]

After changing value in <input> (notice the double quotes surrounding 5 in the first row):

[
    ["apple","5",10,2],
    ["banana",0,4,0],
    ["grape",2,3,5],
    ["pear",4,2,8],
    ["strawberry",0,14,0]
]

The data updated by users will be sent back to server and thus its JSON data types must be predictable. Can sortable-table survive user's data modification and preserve the original JSON data types in its data attribute?

[masaoliou]

Adding attribute datatype to sortable-column in example1 seems to be not helping much:

myColumns:[
    {type:"text",title:"fruit"},
    {type:"number",title:"alice"},
    {type:"number",title:"bill"},
    {type:"number",title:"casey"}
]

<template repeat="{{myColumns}}">
    <sortable-column datatype="{{type}}">{{title}}</sortable-column>
</template>

[stevenrskelton]

Standard <input> will always return a String value (even with type=number), so standard Polymer data-binding will always save the field as a String.

I'm not sure what the best approach for this would be, it likely would be to inherit a new control from the standard input that behaves nicely.

[masaoliou]

Then maybe I will manipulate the data types of the result model using Number() or the like before sending it to server. :-)

[masaoliou]

Behaviors of checkbox and multiSelection become unstable if rows and columns are dynamically generated. After adding properties checkbox="true" multiSelect="false" to element <sortable-table> in the two examples you provided,

• Check boxes does not respond to the first mouse click. They start to respond only after the second and more mouse clicks.
• Single row selection is not enforced. Multiple rows are always allowed to be selected even though property multiSelect is explicitly set to false.

Enlightenment will be greatly appreciated!