Table View Cell Focus With Sorting

Bugs & Issues
1

I’m sure this is already a reported bug, but I can’t find it. If you are updating a lot of cells in a table with sorting applied, the table will sort while you are typing and divide your text between multiple cells.

I’ve had multiple people complain about this. I did a short screen recording, I encourage you to watch the full video (27 seconds) to see how annoying this is.

1 Like
2

Very nasty thing, I hope we will fix it asap

2 Likes
3

Am I right to assume that the table is sorted by a formula field based on the values from the PCO #### column?

4

I’m asking because for regular columns we update the value and the sorting optimistically, so the user simply doesn’t have time to start editing the next cell before the update happens.

With formula fields, though, we have to rely on the backend, so the update comes with a delay and the glitches become more noticeable.

It’s all because of the cold, heartless nature of reactivity in UIs :sweat_smile:

So I wanted to ask — what behavior would you expect as a user?

5

The top level sort is the state field, but there’s an automation that changes the state when certain information is filled out. So in the case of the video, when the PCO # column is filled out, it changes the state to “PCO”.

Let’s look at my video example (from 00:17 to 00:21) and count rows below the top red bar. Keep in mind, I am just trying to write “PCO 1005” in a single cell.

  1. I start typing on row 4 “PCO 1”
  2. The table is resorted from a previous entry, so now the line I was typing on is row 3, but the cell focus stayed on row 4. I continue typing “0” in this new cell
  3. The cell focus briefly flickers up to row 3 forcing me to overwrite the previous “PCO 1” from step 1 with “0”
  4. The cell focus flickers back to row 4 forcing me to overwrite the “0” from step 2 with “5”
  5. The back and forth focus flickering means the automation is triggered for both of these rows and they are sorted below. One of them was supposed to say “PCO 1005” and the other was never supposed to have been typed on, so now I have to go find and edit them

I understand the automation is forcing a delayed sort on the table, but I don’t understand what’s happening on steps 3-4. The cell focus already changed mid-type but then for some reason it flickers up to the original row and back down again. This second round of flickering doesn’t seem to accomplish anything and is after the initial sort and refocus. In my mind, even if the cell focus changes, shouldn’t the combination of the cells combine to what I was writing (“PCO 1005”)?

Honestly I don’t know what a good solution is for steps 1-2. My preference is for the focus to stay on the row that I am typing. So even if that row moves, I would prefer to keep typing on that same line. So for my video example, I was typing on row 4 below the red bar, now I’m typing on row 3. Obviously not a perfect solution because that row could get sorted off-screen and you would have to scroll to it. I think this would work in the majority of cases, but if you are bulk editing maybe it could be jarring.

Another option could be a view setting to turn off dynamics sorting. When the sorting changes, a colored banner pops up at the top of the view asking if you want to resort. I know Fibery doesn’t love adding hyper specific settings like this, but this option would probably be appreciated by the accounting teams in companies that are used to excel and google sheets and now doing some of that work in Fibery. There are some dynamic sorting functions in excel, but I would think this option more closely resembles the majority of spreadsheet users experience.

6

Sorry for no answer. The issue has been fixed, to some extent at least, in today’s release. Please check if it works for you.