facebook/react-native

Inverted FlatList displays activity indicator at the bottom

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#17,553 opened on Jan 11, 2018

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BugComponent: FlatListGood first issueHelp Wanted :octocat:Type: Enhancement

Description

Is this a bug report?

yes

Have you read the Contributing Guidelines?

yes

Environment

Environment: all newer environments Packages: any packages Target Platform: any platform Version: 0.53.0 and all other versions of RN that support FlatList with the inverted attribute

Steps to Reproduce

  1. return <FlatList {...props} inverted data={[...]} refreshing={this.state.isLoading} onRefresh={this.someListUpdatingFunction} /> (just add the 'inverted' attribute to any RN <FlatList/> to reproduce, then try pulling down to refresh, then try pulling up to refresh)

Expected Behavior

onRefresh should allow users to refresh using the most common way that users have been trained to refresh data over the years, which is to "pull down to refresh" and see an ActivityIndicator spinning above the FlatList, never below it... this should be the default even when inverted={true}

Actual Behavior

user has to pull UP to refresh (with Activity Indicator at the bottom) ... literal vs intuitive: when taken "literally", i can agree that this is expected behavior since it is after all "inverted" ... however, when taken "intuitively", it's not so expected, especially for users... I don't think app users have ever been trained to pull up to refresh data, except for maybe in the "OfferUp" chat app!

Most Applicable Use Case

  • a chat app, where users pull down to load more chat history that's appended above, similar to how it's done in iOS Messages app
  • UIs like terminals, event logs, chat, etc... where it's common to insert new content from the bottom and load old content when the user scrolls to the top or pulls down to refresh

Demo

https://snack.expo.io/S1UOyWgSM (to reproduce, just add the 'inverted' attribute to any RN <FlatList/> component using v0.53.0 or any version of RN that supports FlatList)

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascripttypescriptreact native
Domain
mobile
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
React NativeFlatList componentinverted proppull to refresh
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30
Research direction
The issue demonstrates that when FlatList has inverted={true}, the RefreshControl appears at the bottom and triggers on pull up instead of the standard pull down. The fix likely involves modifying the VirtualizedList or FlatList component to reposition the RefreshControl when inverted. Review the FlatList implementation in the React Native codebase, particularly files like `Libraries/Lists/FlatList.js` and `Libraries/Lists/VirtualizedList.js`. Also, examine the comments in the issue for proposed solutions or workarounds, and consider testing with a snack example to verify the behavior.