Flutter: Scrolling to a widget in ListView

Question

By far, the easiest solution is to use Scrollable.ensureVisible(context). As it does everything for you and work with any widget size. Fetching the context using GlobalKey.

The problem is that ListView won't render non-visible items. Meaning that your target most likely will not be built at all. Which means your target will have no context ; preventing you from using that method without some more work.

In the end, the easiest solution will be to replace your ListView by a SingleChildScrollView and wrap your children into a Column. Example :

class ScrollView extends StatelessWidget {
  final dataKey = new GlobalKey();

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new Scaffold(
      primary: true,
      appBar: new AppBar(
        title: const Text('Home'),
      ),
      body: new SingleChildScrollView(
        child: new Column(
          children: <Widget>[
            new SizedBox(height: 160.0, width: double.infinity, child: new Card()),
            new SizedBox(height: 160.0, width: double.infinity, child: new Card()),
            new SizedBox(height: 160.0, width: double.infinity, child: new Card()),
            // destination
            new Card(
              key: dataKey,
              child: new Text("data\n\n\n\n\n\ndata"),
            )
          ],
        ),
      ),
      bottomNavigationBar: new RaisedButton(
        onPressed: () => Scrollable.ensureVisible(dataKey.currentContext),
        child: new Text("Scroll to data"),
      ),
    );
  }
}

NOTE : While this allows to scroll to the desired item easily, consider this method only for small predefined lists. As for bigger lists you'll get performance problems.

But it's possible to make Scrollable.ensureVisible work with ListView ; although it will require more work.

Unfortunately, ListView has no built-in approach to a scrollToIndex() function. You’ll have to develop your own way to measure to that element’s offset for animateTo() or jumpTo(), or you can search through these suggested solutions/plugins or from other posts like flutter ListView scroll to index not available

(the general scrollToIndex issue is discussed at flutter/issues/12319 since 2017, but still with no current plans)

---

But there is a different kind of ListView that does support scrollToIndex:

• ScrollablePositionedList
  • dependency: scrollable_positioned_list

You set it up exactly like ListView and works the same, except you now have access to a ItemScrollController that does:

• jumpTo({index, alignment})
• scrollTo({index, alignment, duration, curve})

Simplified example:

ItemScrollController _scrollController = ItemScrollController();

ScrollablePositionedList.builder(
  itemScrollController: _scrollController,
  itemCount: _myList.length,
  itemBuilder: (context, index) {
    return _myList[index];
  },
)

_scrollController.scrollTo(index: 150, duration: Duration(seconds: 1));

Please not that although the scrollable_positioned_list package is published by google.dev, they explicitly state that their packages are not officially supported Google products. - Source

If your widgets inside the ListView all have the same height, you can implement it like this:

Screenshot:

---

For ListView, you can try this, the following code will animate to 10th index.

class HomePage extends StatelessWidget {
  final _controller = ScrollController();
  final _height = 100.0;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(),
      floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: () => _animateToIndex(10),
        child: Icon(Icons.arrow_downward),
      ),
      body: ListView.builder(
        controller: _controller,
        itemCount: 100,
        itemBuilder: (_, i) => Container(
          height: _height,
          child: Card(child: Center(child: Text("Item $i"))),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  _animateToIndex(i) => _controller.animateTo(_height * i, duration: Duration(seconds: 2), curve: Curves.fastOutSlowIn);
}

For people are trying to jump to widget in CustomScrollView. First, add this plugin to your project.

Then look at my example code below:

class Example extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _ExampleState createState() => _ExampleState();
}

class _ExampleState extends State<Example> {
  AutoScrollController _autoScrollController;
  final scrollDirection = Axis.vertical;

  bool isExpaned = true;
  bool get _isAppBarExpanded {
    return _autoScrollController.hasClients &&
        _autoScrollController.offset > (160 - kToolbarHeight);
  }

  @override
  void initState() {
    _autoScrollController = AutoScrollController(
      viewportBoundaryGetter: () =>
          Rect.fromLTRB(0, 0, 0, MediaQuery.of(context).padding.bottom),
      axis: scrollDirection,
    )..addListener(
        () => _isAppBarExpanded
            ? isExpaned != false
                ? setState(
                    () {
                      isExpaned = false;
                      print('setState is called');
                    },
                  )
                : {}
            : isExpaned != true
                ? setState(() {
                    print('setState is called');
                    isExpaned = true;
                  })
                : {},
      );
    super.initState();
  }

  Future _scrollToIndex(int index) async {
    await _autoScrollController.scrollToIndex(index,
        preferPosition: AutoScrollPosition.begin);
    _autoScrollController.highlight(index);
  }

  Widget _wrapScrollTag({int index, Widget child}) {
    return AutoScrollTag(
      key: ValueKey(index),
      controller: _autoScrollController,
      index: index,
      child: child,
      highlightColor: Colors.black.withOpacity(0.1),
    );
  }

  _buildSliverAppbar() {
    return SliverAppBar(
      brightness: Brightness.light,
      pinned: true,
      expandedHeight: 200.0,
      backgroundColor: Colors.white,
      flexibleSpace: FlexibleSpaceBar(
        collapseMode: CollapseMode.parallax,
        background: BackgroundSliverAppBar(),
      ),
      bottom: PreferredSize(
        preferredSize: Size.fromHeight(40),
        child: AnimatedOpacity(
          duration: Duration(milliseconds: 500),
          opacity: isExpaned ? 0.0 : 1,
          child: DefaultTabController(
            length: 3,
            child: TabBar(
              onTap: (index) async {
                _scrollToIndex(index);
              },
              tabs: List.generate(
                3,
                (i) {
                  return Tab(
                    text: 'Detail Business',
                  );
                },
              ),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      body: CustomScrollView(
        controller: _autoScrollController,
        slivers: <Widget>[
          _buildSliverAppbar(),
          SliverList(
              delegate: SliverChildListDelegate([
            _wrapScrollTag(
                index: 0,
                child: Container(
                  height: 300,
                  color: Colors.red,
                )),
            _wrapScrollTag(
                index: 1,
                child: Container(
                  height: 300,
                  color: Colors.red,
                )),
            _wrapScrollTag(
                index: 2,
                child: Container(
                  height: 300,
                  color: Colors.red,
                )),
          ])),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }
}

Yeah it's just a example, use your brain to make it this idea become true

You can just specify a ScrollController to your listview and call the animateTo method on button click.

A mininmal example to demonstrate animateTo usage :

class Example extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _ExampleState createState() => new _ExampleState();
}

class _ExampleState extends State<Example> {
  ScrollController _controller = new ScrollController();

  void _goToElement(int index){
    _controller.animateTo((100.0 * index), // 100 is the height of container and index of 6th element is 5
        duration: const Duration(milliseconds: 300),
        curve: Curves.easeOut);
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new Scaffold(
      appBar: new AppBar(),
      body: new Column(
        children: <Widget>[
          new Expanded(
            child: new ListView(
              controller: _controller,
              children: Colors.primaries.map((Color c) {
                return new Container(
                  alignment: Alignment.center,
                  height: 100.0,
                  color: c,
                  child: new Text((Colors.primaries.indexOf(c)+1).toString()),
                );
              }).toList(),
            ),
          ),
          new FlatButton(
            // on press animate to 6 th element
            onPressed: () => _goToElement(6),
            child: new Text("Scroll to 6th element"),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }
}

Output:

Use Dependency:

dependencies:
    scroll_to_index: ^1.0.6

Code: (Scroll will always perform 6th index widget as its added below as hardcoded, try with scroll index which you required for scrolling to specific widget)

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);

  final String title;

  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  final scrollDirection = Axis.vertical;

  AutoScrollController controller;
  List<List<int>> randomList;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    controller = AutoScrollController(
        viewportBoundaryGetter: () =>
            Rect.fromLTRB(0, 0, 0, MediaQuery.of(context).padding.bottom),
        axis: scrollDirection);
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text(widget.title),
      ),
      body: ListView(
        scrollDirection: scrollDirection,
        controller: controller,
        children: <Widget>[
          ...List.generate(20, (index) {
            return AutoScrollTag(
              key: ValueKey(index),
              controller: controller,
              index: index,
              child: Container(
                height: 100,
                color: Colors.red,
                margin: EdgeInsets.all(10),
                child: Center(child: Text('index: $index')),
              ),
              highlightColor: Colors.black.withOpacity(0.1),
            );
          }),
        ],
      ),
      floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: _scrollToIndex,
        tooltip: 'Increment',
        child: Icon(Icons.add),
      ),
    );
  }
  // Scroll listview to the sixth item of list, scrollling is dependent on this number
  Future _scrollToIndex() async {
    await controller.scrollToIndex(6, preferPosition: AutoScrollPosition.begin);
  }
}