Scribbles for my bad memory

If you’ve worked with Flutter’s ListView, you might have encountered a scenario where you navigate between pages, and upon returning, the scroll position isn’t where you expected it to be. Recently, I faced a similar challenge with a note-taking app. Every time I moved between pages, I ended up at the bottom of the new page. Not the best user experience, right?

The Problem

In my note-taking app, I wanted the NoteList widget to always start at the top position whenever it’s built or updated. This way, users wouldn’t have to manually scroll up to see the latest notes. The challenge was to encapsulate the scroll behavior within the NoteList widget itself, without having to manage the scroll status from its parent widget. Here’s how we achieved that.

The Initial Implementation

Initially, NoteList was a simple StatelessWidget that displayed a list of notes grouped by their creation date. However, it didn’t retain or reset the scroll position upon navigation or page refreshes, which led to an inconsistent and frustrating user experience. Here’s a simplified version of the original NoteList:

class NoteList extends StatelessWidget {
  final List<Note> notes;
  final Function(Note) onTap;

  const NoteList({required this.notes, required this.onTap});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    // Group notes by date
    final notesByDate = <String, List<Note>>{};
    for (var note in notes) {
      final dateKey = note.createDate!;
      notesByDate[dateKey] = notesByDate[dateKey] ?? [];
      notesByDate[dateKey]!.add(note);
    }

    return ListView.builder(
      itemCount: notesByDate.keys.length,
      itemBuilder: (context, index) {
        final dateKey = notesByDate.keys.elementAt(index);
        final dayNotes = notesByDate[dateKey]!;
        return Column(
          crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
          children: dayNotes.map((note) => GestureDetector(
              onTap: () => onTap(note),
              child: Text(note.content),
            )).toList(),
        );
      },
    );
  }
}

The Solution

To solve this, we needed to ensure that every time NoteList was built, it would start at the top of the list. We introduced a ScrollController to manage the scroll position and added a simple logic to reset the scroll position to the top whenever the widget is built or updated.

Here's how we transformed the NoteList:

1. Added a ScrollController: This allows us to control the scroll position programmatically.
2. Reset Scroll Position: Using WidgetsBinding.instance.addPostFrameCallback, we ensure the scroll is reset after the widget's frame is built.

Here's the updated NoteList with these improvements:

class NoteList extends StatelessWidget {
  final List<Note> notes;
  final Function(Note) onTap;
+  final ScrollController _scrollController = ScrollController();

  NoteList({required this.notes, required this.onTap}) {
+    // Scroll to the top whenever the widget is built or updated
+    WidgetsBinding.instance.addPostFrameCallback((_) {
+      _scrollController.jumpTo(0);
+    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    // Group notes by date
    final notesByDate = <String, List<Note>>{};
    for (var note in notes) {
      final dateKey = note.createDate!;
      notesByDate[dateKey] = notesByDate[dateKey] ?? [];
      notesByDate[dateKey]!.add(note);
    }

    return ListView.builder(
+      controller: _scrollController,
      itemCount: notesByDate.keys.length,
      itemBuilder: (context, index) {
        final dateKey = notesByDate.keys.elementAt(index);
        final dayNotes = notesByDate[dateKey]!;
        return Column(
          crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
          children: dayNotes.map((note) => GestureDetector(
              onTap: () => onTap(note),
              child: Text(note.content),
            )).toList(),
        );
      },
    );
  }
}

Key Takeaways

1. Encapsulation: By managing the scroll state within NoteList, we keep the parent widget cleaner and more focused on data management.
2. Consistent User Experience: Resetting the scroll position ensures users always start at the top, providing a predictable and pleasant experience.
3. Simple Yet Effective: Sometimes, small changes like adding a ScrollController can significantly enhance the usability of your app.

This solution should help other developers facing similar issues with managing scroll positions in Flutter. By following this approach, you can ensure that your list-based components offer a consistent and user-friendly experience.

By the way, my simple note taking app has been released at https://happynotes.shukebeta.com, and I'll improve it day by day. It is an free web application, and it has an android version on GitHub.

Feel free to use it and give me feedback on GitHub!