Feature: Efficient update adjacent nodes

Great project. Love the DomDiff. One thing that I think may be improved is the updating of same-kind adjacent nodes. Right now, if I insert (for example) a new LI node at the beginning of a UL list, since the diff algorithm doesn’t has any context, it doesn’t knows that the list can be moved down instead of have to update every single LI element AND adding a new LI at the end.

On a library I’m working on (not related) I faced the same problem with objects, where I could not equate them using ==, so I had to resort to some identifier of the object (usually a property named id).

I think that maybe you can also use the same approach, by using a custom attribute/data attribute. What are your thoughts on this?

[cferdinandi]

After the node is moved, it’s further diffed to check for any changes in attributes, content, sub-nodes and so on.

[cferdinandi]

Alright, v8.1.0 should address this.

Under-the-hood, when comparing two DOM nodes, Reef now…

1. Checks to see if the items are the same node type, and if so, if they have the same ID (if they both do not have an ID, that would be considered “having the same ID”).
2. If they “are the same node” per the conditions above, their content and attributes are diffed as normal (same way its always worked)
3. If they’re a different node (different type or ID), Reef checks to see if the right node exists further in the DOM tree.
4. If it does, Reef moves it to the correct spot
5. If not, Reef injects a new DOM node