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Feature Request FR-1851
Product Area Application Builder
Status CLOSED

137 Voters

Interactive Report - Float horizontal scrollbar at bottom of the screen (so it's always available... don't have to scroll down to it)

bshumway Public · Aug 26 2021

Idea Summary
There are 3 ways to scroll horizontally on an IR.

#1: Scroll down to the bottom of the IR (often past 50 or even a 100 rows) to find the horizontal scrollbar. Drag the scrollbar  right. This is annoying as often the most important data is on the top. So you have to scroll back up.

#2: Hold the shift-key on your keyboard and roll your mouse's scroll roll down. Many users don't know about this technique. I know it works in chrome. I don't think it works in firefox? The scrolling is slow.

#3: Click the mousewheel inside of the “data” section of the IR. and move your mouse to the right. This is the easiest technique, but just like #2 many users don't know about this. 

Use Case
My users are elderly or not tech savvy. They don't know about the scroll wheel (for option 3 above) and frankly won't discover it on their own. I have too many users to tell each and every one of them how to do this basic technique. I shouldn't have to teach users how to do this in the first place.

Preferred Solution (Optional)
At the bottom of what's visible on the screen, there should be a horizontal scrollbar that's floating there. If the user scrolls the IR into view this horizontal scollbar will show up. If the user scrolls below the IR, the horizontal scrollbar won't continue to follow the user. It should only appear when the user can see at least 5 rows of the IR… and the bottom of the IR is cut-off (not in view) because it's below the user's current viewport.

We reviewed this idea carefully, and while it was interesting, we concluded that it is unlikely to make its way into APEX in the foreseeable future.

Known Duplicates

Known duplicates

FR-1770
FR-1770 Easy Full height regions
FR-2432
FR-2432 An option in the interactive report or interactive grid to show horizontal scrollbar on the top of the region
FR-3331
FR-3331 Interactive Grid/Report - always available horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the page (like pagination in the region footer)

36 Comments

Comments

  • ino.laurensse OP 3.6 years ago

    Alternative: a scrollbar at the top of the region.

  • e.yulianto OP 3.6 years ago (edited 1.6 years ago)

    This has happened to my users. So, I followed these tricks:

    https://apex18.blogspot.com/2019/12/add-scrollbars-to-interactive-report.html

    https://tm-apex.blogspot.com/2020/07/show-additional-scrollbar-on-top.html

  • gabriel.diaz.arias OP 3.5 years ago

    This is not an issue from apex 5.0, as you can define the IR with fixed height and it will show the scrollbar. What is true is that you need to specify a fix height for the region and limit the number of rows, which is unwanted. It would be very nice just having a floating scrollbar not just for IR, for all kind of apex reports, IR, CR, IG.

  • bshumway OP 3.5 years ago

    @e.yulianto

    I saw that. Unfortunately a lot of APEX developers where I work can't wrap their heads around CSS very well… so if a later version of APEX breaks the CSS they would have no way of knowing how to fix it. I'm also not sure the CSS works for pivot reports, control breaks or group by's. Also the fact that the bar shows up on the top kinda looks bad. It's inbetween the column names and the data so it's in the way. Finally, how many apps do you know of that have a top horizontal scrolling bar? There's a reason why a bottom-floating scrollbar as the standard. Look at microsoft excel as an example. It just makes sense.

  • bshumway OP 3.5 years ago

    @gabriel.diaz.arias

    This does become an issue for smaller screens as you can only limit the number of rows so much. For example if you have a notes column that often gets a lot of information in it…. the rows become vertically large. So even just showing 10 rows means you're going to have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the horizontal scrollbar.

  • gabriel.diaz.arias OP 3.5 years ago

    Yeah I agree, It goes against responsive applications, for that reason I said that defining a fixed height and fixed number of rows is unwanted.

  • nicolas pilot OP 3.5 years ago

    Hi, there is a plugin for that : https://github.com/foobarbaz-pl/apex-plugin-floating-scrollbar

    It would be nice to have it built-in directly in APEX…

  • chris.shannon OP 3.5 years ago

    I would love to have this feature.

  • bshumway OP 3.5 years ago

    @pilot.nicolas agreed. For example with the plugin looks like it broke when APEX went to 19 so it needs CSS hack to keep it working. My team isn't well versed in CSS and we have too many apps to maintain to have to keep up with a plugin that will break with APEX upgrades…

    Source

    https://github.com/foobarbaz-pl/apex-plugin-floating-scrollbar/issues/21

  • ralf OP 3.1 years ago

    I Support this Idea and prefer a Scrollbar on the top of the IR.

  • bshumway OP 3.1 years ago

    @ralf, could be a declarative feature. (Developer can choose top or bottom or maybe even both)…. something for the APEX team to play with I guess. I already gave my reasons for it being on the bottom (of the screen as a “sticky” or “float”).

  • mos OP 3.1 years ago

    yes please!

  • jeremy.webb2 OP 3 years ago

    This should definitely be a declarative option for all report type regions, to have a scrollbar at the top or bottom or both of the region.

  • gaspar_gonzalez OP 2.9 years ago

    For top scrollbar on IR, just follow this one:
    https://apex18.blogspot.com/2019/12/add-scrollbars-to-interactive-report.html

  • joerg.glasauer OP 2.9 years ago

    On the top, right after the header-row too.
    And also for classic reports.
    :-j

  • alexandru.banu OP 2.9 years ago

    I fully support this and until it's implemented in the product, if your users are using laptops, they can horizontally scroll in both IR and IG using the mouse pad. Just swipe horizontally :)

  • tony.austin OP 2.8 years ago

    There is a workaround for this.  For IR regions, you can add 
     

    #static_id .t-fht-thead{
 overflow: auto !important;
}

    to the page inline CSS.

    For IG regions, you can use 

    #static_id .a-GV-w-hdr{
overflow: auto !important;
}

    There might be a better workaround now that there are css variables within universal theme, but this still works.

  • tdoberman OP 2.8 years ago

    A workaround is not a good solution because once APEX is upgraded to higher versions, any workaround may stop working!

  • dan.pecora OP 2.8 years ago

    I agree with tdoberman, it's too risky. I've yet to meet anyone who has not complained about this scrolling issue. If I had a penny for each time I heard a complaint, several of us could retire on the proceeds :-). It would be nice if this could be a standard feature/configuration. It would help internal and external users, a win-win for all….

  • bshumway OP 2.5 years ago

    I'm still getting users asking me for this feature…

  • dan.pecora OP 2.5 years ago

    Same here. A week does not go by where someone I'm working with is frustrated by this. I do instruct them use the work-arounds, but this is really something that should be a default within the app. It seems like an easy change, wonder why there's so much reluctance to fixing it? This screams User Experience :-D

  • dave.waghorn OP 2.5 years ago

    It's a shame that this has been closed without any explanation as to why a native fix can't be added, when so many workarounds exist.

  • jayson hanes Admin OP 2.4 years ago

    I think the key here is the design pattern and best practice approach that should be encouraged. ie. The report shouldn't be configured to be wider than the typical device screen width expected to use it - and that's up to the developer to control (for good or bad)

  • tdoberman OP 2.4 years ago

    Nonsense, then why is there a function to freeze columns from the left?

  • jayson hanes Admin OP 2.4 years ago

    well that feature has been implemented for a long time.. this is about new features.. so what was once “cool and a good idea” might not be any longer, and we're not going to remove things because it'd break for those who use it. So it's not nonsense to state what I did.

  • jessica.wilson4 OP 2.4 years ago

    My issue with that answer is that an interactive report has features that allow a user to interact with the output which may include exposing columns that aren't available on the default view.  If I wanted something completely under my control, I wouldn't use an interactive report to begin with.   The scrollbar is there, it's just in an awkward location for most people.

  • tdoberman OP 2.4 years ago

    And anyway, IG should have all IR functions in read-only mode, and IR should not be used for new applications because what's the point, and so we have two completely different solutions - especially in terms of user experience.

  • bshumway OP 1.7 years ago

    I'm late to the party. Didn't see that this got closed… even with 131 upvotes.

    I respect your decision to close good sir. The crowd vs the wise. But if you have a moment to reconsider please do. Otherwise, I understand.

  • aparsana OP 1.2 years ago

    i think this needs to be reopened. i had struggled with this since many year. and now more and more end users are asking for it … its very askward to use … and even awakward to explain it to the developer then they cant use the horizontal scroll bar unless they absolutely scroll to the last.

    and since it is an “Interactive Report” … it defeats the purpose to lock it down in any way. in my experience IR is one of the most important feature for Oracle APEX, and it need some tiny life improcements like these.

  • dave.waghorn OP 1.2 years ago

    I agree. The response from Jayson is essentially “it's an old idea and you shouldn't use features like IR and IG that allow users the potential to add columns that make the report wider than the screen" - in which case, why are IR and IG not deprecated? Either they're supported current features - in which case we need horizontal scroll bars please! - or they're not.

  • jayson hanes Admin OP 1.2 years ago

    @dave.waghorn but that's not reality. The reports work fine. Not every permutation of pushing the limits has to be supported, for the component to be supported.

  • aparsana OP 1.2 years ago

    @jayson hanes it is tru that IR doesnt have to support every permutation. but having more columns on report than can fit the width is a very common occurence(atleast in my experience it is)  ..and can happen very easily with 10/15 columns on a low res screen,etc.

    and rather than having a work around like above mentioned by tony (and it works), i would have preferred if there was a builin setting/config to do it.

  • desenvolupament OP 1.1 years ago

    I'm surprised to see the apex team against this when it does have 134 votes from your developers that use and design tools with those components and have to make hack solutions to solve it. Making a report so it always fits to the screen is not an answer for me. You won't imagine how many users do have a zoom by default of 125% or 150% because of visual problems, age, comfort etc, and they can't even use a report with just 6 columns without a proper horizontall scroll bar. This is a big problem when you want the report to adapt to the window height, but want to keep the horizontall scroll bar at all times. Now or you just define a fixed height region so scrollbars shows just fine, or you have to deal with empty space and uneeded vertical scrolling for users for bigger screens. Apex universal theme is sold as responsive, and this makes our applications not responsive at all so we end up hacking it anyway, so why not implementing it if developers don't see any side effects¿?. Responsive is not just between devices, is between differents resolutions and user preferences also.

  • desenvolupament OP 1.1 years ago

    @jayson hanes I just can't understand this, as we as developers we can have a requirement to show 10 columns at the same time, or may be users with smaller screens than others. We can't ask our users to add or remove columns every time that they want to see more columns. Some users have zoom for vision problems, age, readibility etc. A report is for management applications, and is not always possible to make them to look as good as possible without horizontal scrollbars, because the requirement has priority over design in some cases. Most users just don't know how to use the keyboard shift key to make horizontal scroll etc. Now or you just make a fixed region height, making users with big screens deal with empty spaces. It could be solved just by being able to define the region height as a % of available space, or with floating bottom scrollbar.

  • jochen.zehe OP 1 years ago

    John Snyders commented on this idea in the duplicate idea here:

    https://apex.oracle.com/ideas/FR-3331

  • desenvolupament OP 1 years ago

    It just doesn't have much sense for developers dealing with 3 components for doing the same, classic reports, IR, and IG. And every component with different behaviours, ones with scroll pagination, others not, others do response properly with many columns, others with template row support, others not. This is the kind of thing that developers wants to be corrected or improved.