Remember scroll position in QML element

Question

I have some qml that acts as the output from the application (kind of like a read-only console). However, it's annoying to use because as it prints information it scrolls back to the top.

For example, lets say I print a line to my TextArea every second, after a minute or so, I'll have enough lines that I now have a scroll bar. I scroll to the bottom, a second later, a line of text is printed causing it to scroll back to the top.

The desired functionality I would like is to automatically scroll to the bottom (much like how a console is when it prints stuff out) unless the user overrides this by scrolling up, then the text should stay put. I hope that made sense, here is some code:

        ScrollArea {
            id: helpTextScrollArea
            anchors.left: parent.left
            anchors.right: parent.right
            anchors.top: myButton.bottom
            anchors.topMargin: 5
            anchors.bottom: parent.bottom
            visible: false
            horizontalScrollBar.visible: false

            onVisibleChanged: {
                helpText.visible = visible
            }

            HelpTextArea {
                id: helpText
                width: parent.parent.width - helpTextScrollArea.verticalScrollBar.width
                text: "Oops, no documentation."

                onVisibleChanged: {
                    if(helpTextScrollArea.visible != visible) {
                        helpTextScrollArea.visible = visible
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        Flickable
        {
            id: flick

            anchors.left: parent.left
            anchors.right: parent.right
            anchors.top: runStopButton.bottom
            anchors.bottom: parent.bottom
            anchors.topMargin: 5


            TextArea{

                id: messageArea
                anchors.fill: parent

                focus: true

                readOnly: true

                visible: !helpTextScrollArea.visible

                wrapMode: TextEdit.Wrap

                function addText(newText) {
                    text += newText + "\n"
                }
            }
        }

Note: I don't think my Flickable does anything, it was part of my experimenting to fix the problem. Also, I use the function addText to print to the text area. I hardly know anything about qml and most of this code was written by someone else and I'm trying to work with it. Thank you!

Answer 1

You can bind contentY property of Flickable to an expression that will calculate proper position.

Flickable {
    id: flick
    states: State {
        name: "autoscroll"
        PropertyChanges {
            target: flick
            contentY: messageArea.height - height
        }
    }
    onMovementEnded: {
        if (contentY === messageArea.height - height) {
            state = "autoscroll"
        }
        else {
            state = ""  // default state
        }
    }
    // ...
}

Answer 2

Flickable has got 4 readonly properties in called visibleArea.* (you can read their meaning in the QML documentation) :

• visibleArea.xPosition : xPosition = contentX / contentWidth
• visibleArea.yPosition : yPosition = contentY / contentHeight
• visibleArea.widthRatio : widthRatio = width / contentWidth
• visibleArea.heightRatio : heightRatio = height / contentHeight