122 UniformItemsLayout

[VladislavAntonyuk]

Fixes

#122

Description

Migrate UniformGrid to MCT

[pictos]

Adding the do-not-merge because the #214 has priority

[TheCodeTraveler]

Hey Vlad!

Let's Update 2 Things:

• Move UniformGrid from the Views folder/namespace to Layouts folder + namespace
  • Technically, UniformGrid is a View, but since it contains List<IView> Children, it is more accurate to define it as a Layout
• Rearchitect UniformGrid
  • Let's have UniformGrid inherit from Layout instead Grid, e.g. public class UniformGrid : Layout
  • (More thoughts below)

Rearchitecting UniformGrid

I think we need to rethink how UniformGrid is architected.

A lot of Grid properties are not being used (like RowDefinitions and ColumnDefinitions) because ILayoutManager is essentially re-drawing the UI on the screen to imitate a Grid.

Perhaps we don't inherit from Grid, and instead Layout instead.

👇 Check out this example I added to the sample where I add an IView to the UniformGrid using uniformGrid.Children.Add().

The child is added to the Grid, but it is always added to the same column + row.

Once the row becomes wider than the screen, it wraps around creating what looks like a new column.

And if I specify a Row/Column for the child, it is ignored; the child is always added to the same row/column:

var boxView = new BoxView
{
	HeightRequest = widthRequest,
	WidthRequest = heightRequest,
	Color = randomColor
};
Grid.SetRow(boxView, 1);
Grid.SetColumn(boxView, 1);
uniformGrid.Children.Add(boxView);

ScreenFlow.mp4

[VladislavAntonyuk]

Hey Brandon, maybe rename the control to UniformLayout?

[TheCodeTraveler]

Yea! Naming is tough, but I like where you're going with it!

Along with Uniform to let users know everything will be spaced evenly, maybe we also add something that lets users know we'll be putting their controls into rows + columns?

Here's a couple more ideas:

• UniformRowsColumnsLayout
• EvenlySpacedGridLayout
• AutoSpacedLayout
• EvenlySpacedRowsColumnsLayout
• AutoSpacedRowsColumnsLayout

I'm not sold on any of these, but sometimes it helps to throw a bunch of names out there 😃

[bijington]

Yea! Naming is tough, but I like where you're going with it!

You are telling me! Child 1 and Child 2 would definitely agree with you 😆

Along with Uniform to let users know everything will be spaced evenly, maybe we also add something that lets users know we'll be putting their controls into rows + columns?

Here's a couple more ideas:

• UniformRowsColumnsLayout
• EvenlySpacedGridLayout
• AutoSpacedLayout
• EvenlySpacedRowsColumnsLayout
• AutoSpacedRowsColumnsLayout

I'm not sold on any of these, but sometimes it helps to throw a bunch of names out there 😃

I still quite like UniformGrid as the grid suffix implies the rows/columns part. Some other possible names could be:

• UniformItemsLayout
• that's all I've got

[TheCodeTraveler]

Thanks Vlad! I love the new name, love the new IUniformItemsLayout interface, and am impressed at the elegance of the implementation of UniformItemsLayout 💯 👏

[TheCodeTraveler]

Approving again now that we've updated the CI Pipeline for .NET MAUI Preview 13