Datagrok UI Building Guidelines

Rules and patterns for building UI in TypeScript packages and libraries. These are authoritative — follow them unless the user explicitly overrides.

Tab Controls

• Always use addPane with a lazy getContent callback — never pass pre-built elements
• This avoids creating heavy components (grids, viewers, DataFrames) for tabs the user may never open

// Good
const tabs = ui.tabControl();
tabs.addPane('Sheet 1', () => {
  const df = buildDataFrame();
  const grid = DG.Viewer.grid(df);
  return grid.root;
});

// Bad — all tabs built eagerly
const tabs = ui.tabControl({
  'Sheet 1': buildExpensiveGrid(),
  'Sheet 2': buildExpensiveGrid(),
});

Grids and Viewers

• Prefer DG.Viewer.grid(df) for embedding a grid inside a composite layout
• Prefer DG.TableView.create(df, false) when the grid IS the entire view
• The second argument (false) prevents the table from being added to the workspace

Layouts

• Use ui.splitH / ui.splitV for resizable split panels
• Use ui.divV / ui.divH for simple stacking without resize handles
• Set flex: 1 on the element that should fill remaining space
• For tree + content layouts, use ui.splitH([tree.root, contentPanel])

Dialogs and Inputs

• Use ui.dialog() for modal interactions
• Use ui.input.choice(), ui.input.int(), ui.input.bool(), etc. for typed inputs - full set of input functions is in js-api/ui.ts. Prefer onValueChanged in the options object over .onChanged.subscribe():

  ui.input.bool('Debug', {value: DG.Test.isInDebug, onValueChanged: (v) => DG.Test.isInDebug = v});

Use ui.form([...inputs]) to render a labeled list of inputs inside a dialog

• For property panels, prefer DG.JsViewer properties (this.string(...), this.int(...)) which automatically appear in the context panel

Toggle Settings in Popup Menus

For toggleable settings in a DG.Menu.popup(), use menu.items() with isChecked — never use text-prefix hacks like `${flag ? '✓ ' : ''}Label`:

const toggles = [
  {label: 'Debug', get: () => DG.Test.isInDebug, set: (v: boolean) => { DG.Test.isInDebug = v; }},
  {label: 'Benchmark', get: () => DG.Test.isInBenchmark, set: (v: boolean) => { DG.Test.isInBenchmark = v; }},
];
const menu = DG.Menu.popup();
menu.closeOnClick = false;
const refresh = () => {
  menu.clear();
  menu.items(toggles, (t) => { t.set(!t.get()); refresh(); }, {isChecked: (t) => t.get()});
};
refresh();
menu.show();

Performance

• Debounce resize and selection handlers: DG.debounce(observable, 50)
• For large datasets, prefer canvas-based rendering over DOM elements
• Avoid re-creating viewers on every data change — update in place when possible

Accordion

• Use ui.accordion() with lazy getContent callbacks (same principle as tab controls)

const acc = ui.accordion();
acc.addPane('Details', () => buildDetailsPanel());
acc.addPane('Statistics', () => buildStatsPanel());

Drag and Drop

• ui.makeDroppable(el, IDragAndDropOptions<T>) — receive entities dragged from the browse tree, grid, or other sources.
  • acceptDrop(obj) — fast predicate for showing the zone.
  • doDrop(args) — handle the drop. args is a DragDropArgs<T> with dragObject, dragSource, dragObjectType, copying (Ctrl/Cmd), link (Alt), handled.
  • Rich hooks: acceptDrag, onBeginDrag, onEndDrag, onMouseEnter/Over/Leave/Out, dropSuggestion, makeDropZone, dropZoneRectTransformation, dropIndication.
• ui.makeDraggable(el, {getDragObject, getDragCaption}) — make your own UI a drag source.
• Sample: ApiSamples/scripts/ui/interactivity/drag-and-drop.js.

Common Anti-Patterns

• Do not use raw document.createElement when ui.* helpers exist
• Do not set innerHTML with user data — use ui.divText() or textContent
• Do not use style.width = '100%' on tables — let them size to content
• Do not build all content eagerly in multi-pane layouts (tabs, accordions)