Can wcDocker "just" restore the positions/dims of panels without re-instantiation?

[lomotelsch]

Saving/restoring the panels using api-functions saveLayout() and restoreLayout() will destroy all panels first and re-instantiate them afterwards.

The problem with this is, that all panel-content (data) and all changes made to the content (scrolling down a list, checking a checkbox) must be re-initialized and re-set after restoring the panel-layout using restoreLayout().
For the content, which comes from the backend, this is ok in general - we can restore this.
But the other (non-db related) changes applied to the content (scrolling down a list, applying a filter to a table, ..) get lost.

In our case we have a fixed number of different panels with different content.
There are no dynamically created panels nor can the panels be closed.
The panels are collapsible, moveable and can float.

So do you have a clou howto just save/restore the positions and dimension of the panels without re-instantiating them?
I mean, can I restore the positions/sizes of panels just using your api like panel.collapse(), panel.setSize() i.e.?
Do I get all informations from the panels using your API to restore them (position, size, order)?

Would be helpfull to get a tendence in any direction from you..

Thanks, Sebastian

[Lochemage]

@lomotelsch

There are two ways I can think of to solve this problem:

1: Since all of your panels can not be moved or edited, you could probably get away with setting all your panels to persistent (see http://docker.api.webcabin.org/module-wcDocker.html#~registerOptions, the isPersistent option). This will make it so even if the panels are removed, they are technically never removed from memory and will just be re-shown when a new panel is added (eg via the restore layout).

2: You can leverage the save/restore layout event handlers to save and restore your own custom data (see http://docker.api.webcabin.org/module-wcDocker.html#toc4 under the SAVE_LAYOUT and RESTORE_LAYOUT event types). When the layout is being saved, you would remember what properties and filters were enabled, then when the layout is restored you can restore those options again.

[Lochemage]

@lomotelsch

For the second one, I actually have a tutorial here: http://docker.api.webcabin.org/tutorial-2.0-tips-and-tricks.html#toc4

[lomotelsch]

@Lochemage

1: Since all of your panels can not be moved or edited, you could probably get away with setting all your panels to persistent

nice, I will look into this

[lomotelsch]

@Lochemage
I looked into the isPersistent option.
This works nicely when you close and recreate a panel manually, since the isPersistent-option is enabled, you just move the panel into a hidden container - all bound events and data()-properties are kept.
But when you use wcDocker.restore() to restore the previously saved layout, all panel-content gets removed using the jQuery.remove()-method, which also removes events and data-properties:
https://github.com/WebCabin/wcDocker/blob/master/Code/layout.js#L402

Switching to jQuery.detach() when isPersistent is set would fix this

In my scenario, wcDocker is wrapped by angular-directives, which use the data-properties heavily - so this will actually break by restoring the layout.

[Lochemage]

@lomotelsch

Hmm, you're right. I'll have to fix this, although I don't know when I'll have a chance to work on it.