Scroll items during drag and drop an item

Question

Following this Qt tutorial I have written this simple code. There is a horizontal ListView with some simple colored rectangle on it as delegate for the model items.

import QtQuick 2.5
import QtQuick.Window 2.0
import QtQml.Models 2.2

Window {
    visible: true
    width: 300
    height: 120
    title: qsTr("Hello World")

    Rectangle {
        anchors.fill: parent;

        ListView{
            id: timeline
            anchors.fill: parent
            orientation: ListView.Horizontal
            model: visualModel
            delegate: timelineDelegate

            moveDisplaced: Transition {
                NumberAnimation{
                    properties: "x,y"
                    duration: 200
                }
            }

            DelegateModel {
                id: visualModel
                model: timelineModel
                delegate: timelineDelegate
            }

            Component {
                id: timelineDelegate


                MouseArea {
                    id: dragArea

                    width: 100; height: 100

                    property bool held: false

                    drag.target: held ? content : undefined
                    drag.axis: Drag.XAxis

                    onPressAndHold: held = true
                    onReleased: held = false

                    Rectangle {
                        id: content

                        anchors { horizontalCenter: parent.horizontalCenter; verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter }
                        width: 100
                        height: 100

                        color: colore
                        opacity: dragArea.held ? 0.8 : 1.0

                        Drag.active: dragArea.held
                        Drag.source: dragArea
                        Drag.hotSpot.x: width / 2
                        Drag.hotSpot.y: height / 2

                        states: State{
                            when: dragArea.held
                            ParentChange { target: content; parent: timeline }
                            AnchorChanges {
                                target: content
                                anchors { horizontalCenter: undefined; verticalCenter: undefined }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    DropArea {
                        anchors.fill: parent
                        onEntered: {
                            visualModel.items.move( drag.source.DelegateModel.itemsIndex, dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex)
                            timeline.currentIndex = dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            ListModel {
                id: timelineModel
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "blue" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "orange" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "red" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "yellow" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "green" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "yellow" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "red" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "blue" }
                // @disable-check M16
                ListElement { colore: "green" }
            }
        }
    }
}

If I press and hold on an Item, I can swap it with the other with a nice moving effect.
The problem starts when there are a lot of items on the list and the target position is beyond the visible items. I can drag the item ad move it near the right or left border... here the moving effect is absolutely not nice.

Is there a best practice for scrolling correctly the list when an item arrives near the border?
I would like the scrolling starts before the item touches the border!

The nice one

The bad one

Answer 1

ListView scrolls when ListView.currentIndex is changed. That is, the last line in the drop area:

timeline.currentIndex = dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex

says current index, which is always visible, is the dragged item. However if the dragged item arrives border, user expects to see not only the dragged item but also the item next to it. Therefore you need to add one more item to currentIndex:

timeline.currentIndex = dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex + 1

and now list view properly scrolls to right if you drag an item to the right border. To make it avaliable in both left and right border, we need to add a little math to it:

MouseArea {
    id: dragArea

    property int lastX: 0
    property bool moveRight: false

    onXChanged: {
        moveRight = lastX < x;
        lastX = x;
    }

    //....

    DropArea {
        anchors.fill: parent
        onEntered: {
            visualModel.items.move( drag.source.DelegateModel.itemsIndex, 
                                    dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex)
            if (dragArea.moveRight)
                timeline.currentIndex = dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex + 1
            else
                timeline.currentIndex = dragArea.DelegateModel.itemsIndex - 1
        }
    }
}