Is there any "Scrollable Editor" function planned or does it exist already? Any Android/iOS/Win native equivalents?

[jonmdev]

I am building an app for which text input is necessary. Most webapps (Twitter, etc) and mobile apps have what could be described in Maui terms as a "Scrollable Editor."

This would be a text field input integrated into a scroll window that has a minimum and maximum height. The text field integrated into the scroll window would be like a multiline "Editor" object where you can type input into.

Selecting any text via long press on mobile, and then grabbing the Android selection handles and dragging up/down will typically scroll the window upward/downward. Typing more will also automatically scroll the window.

Tapping will typically reposition the cursor, while touching and sliding will typically scroll the window. Sometimes scrolling the window will force the cursor to reposition after it is released within the visible view and sometimes not.

There are minor variations, but overall, this is a basic function used in most common designs. For example, the text entry field of WhatsApp. Or if you try to make a Tweet on the Twitter.com website using a mobile phone.

So I wonder if there is already a Native element in Android/iOS/Windows that encapsulates this function, and if so if it will be integrated into Maui (or if it already has been).

If no such native elements exist, are React and Flutter creating this from scratch themselves when they implement such a function? How is it recommended that one allow this type of function in Maui? What native elements are mapped to Editor/Scrollview already?

Thanks for any thoughts or ideas.

[jonmdev]

I did a bit of research at least to start and from what I see a scrollable multiline textfield is absolutely available in native classes.

Android
In Android it appears to be the EditText object set with the following parameters:

android:overScrollMode="always"
android:scrollbarStyle="insideInset"
android:scrollbars="vertical"

As per: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24428808/how-to-scroll-the-edittext-inside-the-scrollview

iOS
In iOS, this appears to be the UITextView object: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uitextview

Windows
In Universal Windows Platform it appears to be TextBox with the following settings:

<TextBox ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled"
         ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" />

As per: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1192335/automatic-vertical-scroll-bar-in-wpf-textblock

Tizen
In Tizen it appears to be TextEditor: https://docs.tizen.org/application/dotnet/guides/nui/text/#textEditor

Solution?
I see the guide here about creating one's own Handler and custom elements: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/handlers/create

Are we intended to create our own system for these objects, or is there any intention to add this function formally? I suspect I can figure out how to add these things on my own but it may take a long time as I have never done this before, while I presume someone proficient in this system could likely do it very quickly. (I imagine it is mostly the same as the already existing Editor class.)

Thanks for any feedback.

[jonmdev]

I have started the process of making my own object of this nature by copying and pasting the GitHub code for Editor, IEditor, EditorHandler, and IEditorHandler into new classes. Once I can get the clones working, I will work on trying to modify the underlying objects for hopefully the proper effect.

However, this is extremely tedious for something that should obviously be needed in any serious MAUI project.

I will have to use a lot of Reflection to make it work or copy out and modify many of the needed functions as they are not available otherwise, like Platform.EditTextExtensions.UpdateTextFromPlatform():

https://github.com/dotnet/maui/blob/main/src/Controls/src/Core/Platform/Android/Extensions/EditTextExtensions.cs

I am also seeing it will be very complicated to figure out all the inherited interfaces that went into these classes.

Can anyone from the team comment on if this function is already included, if there is any plan to include it if not, and why or why not? Is this really what we're supposed to do to get this basic need met?

If there is no one here from MAUI that knows or is reading, does anyone know where can I ask this question?

Thanks

[jonmdev]

As per #17740 (comment)

I did not realize this already is covered by the Editor functions. Yeesh. Closing. :)