Tables: Freeze columns / Column Pinning

Dimitris Raftopoulos

September 15, 2017 at 8:38 am #4553

Hi all

We have a high priority client requirement  related to being able to freeze (pin) columns in a table . We are using the SPARK UI toolkit and we have to implement this functionality.

The project requires big tables with a lot of columns where the client navigates using scroll bars. They need to be able to freeze (pin) one or more columns while the scroll trough to complete their work easier.

Column pinning can be achieved via the use of ag-grid functionality(https://www.ag-grid.com/javascript-grid-pinning/#gsc.tab=0) but we want to be able to use spark ui for it.

You help will be much appreciated.

Eric Ducos

September 15, 2017 at 9:11 am #4554

Hi Dimitris – The SPARK UI/BPM UI Table has a totally different structure than the ag-grid table. The only scrolling that is supported doesn’t allow a freeze pane capability. That said, clever use of CSS may help the customer achieve this kind of behavior by combining position, margin/padding and overflow with selectors that refer to the nth-child for column element to control a particular column.

I am saying “may” because, although it seems it might be possible, our services team hasn’t implemented this capability for customers as far as I know. But a lot of interesting and fairly sophisticated patterns have been developed with the SPARK UI Table control through styling and custom cell rendering (which is a built-in feature).

If the customer is willing to engage on services for such a capability, please contact our sales team.

Lastly, the SPARK UI/BPM UI toolkit is built for extensibility so it is entirely possible that – if the ag-grid library allows (from a technical and license standpoint) – a control/Coach View could be created to wrap ag-grid and make it a first class citizen as a SPARK UI control. Whether the customer wants to try this themselves (the following link includes a section that covers the topic of creating your own views) or engage on services for such an endeavor would again be their decision.