Inverted FlatList displays activity indicator at the bottom

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)

[ChenLi0830]

Inspired by @mrozbarry, here is what I did as a workaround.

const { fetchingMore, onFetchMore } = this.props;
return <ScrollView
  contentContainerStyle={{
    flexDirection: 'row',
    alignSelf: 'flex-end',
    flexGrow: 1
  }}
  refreshControl={<RefreshControl refreshing={fetchingMore} onRefresh={onFetchMore} />}
>
  <FlatList
    inverted
    style={styles.list}
    data={messages}
    keyExtractor={this.extractItemKey}
    renderItem={this.renderItem}
  />
</ScrollView>

Note that it’s important to have the flexGrow: 1 style in scrollView, otherwise the FlatList would flow at the top of the scrollview when it’s not full.

[dozoisch]

I personally think the behavior of the RefreshControl being at the bottom makes sense. When you are in a Chat application, where new messages appear at the bottom and you keep the user scrolled at the bottom, it feels natural to pull from the bottom to up to try to refresh the conversation. Slack implements it like that. Having a RefreshControl at the top is impossible due to scrolling top causing to load more messages.