232891 - Let user add scrollbar to table data rows

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Layout: Tables, enhancement)

Description

[Kjetil Kjernsmo]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031225 Firebird/0.7

There are many examples of long tables on bugzilla, for example bug lists.
Bugzilla's solution is to add a row with TH's now and then, and/or display the
bug list in a frame. I'd argue that this is a Bad Solution[tm] to a genuine
problem, and that it is a problem that should be solved on the client side
rather than the server side. 

Instead, I propose that the user (or his agent, i.e. Mozilla) may add a
scrollbar to rows that belong to tbody (or some similar criterion). That way,
the user can scroll down the table, with the top headers in place. 

The user can easily see the headers for each coloumn, and the page designer
needs not put in headers at strange places, and possibly break the spacing of
the coloumns in the page (like happens in bugzilla bug lists when this is done).
The designer wouldn't even have to think about it, if he could trust that the
user has an agent that can display the tables sensibly. 

OTOH, if it existed a way for users to gain this amount of control of the
display of the web page, it would probably break a few pages made by designers
who want pixel-level control over pages. I must admit I feel that designers who
think that way should be, uhm, well, really hurt... :-) Especially since many
still use tables for layout. 

Reproducible: Didn't try
Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

This is possible now by putting something like:

tbody {
  max-height: 1000px;
  overflow: auto;
}

in the user stylesheet.

Comment 2

[Kjetil Kjernsmo]

Hm, good point... But what I really wanted was some kind of UI that allows the
user to toggle this functionality on and off, drag the edges to set the size of
the displayed area, and so on. Also, since it is not that common that people use
the tbody element in their tables, it is perhaps not very practical yet...?

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

The tbody element is required in HTML; if it's not explicit in the HTML the
parser inserts it (the start and end tags of this required element are optional;
gotta love HTML).

Now when XHTML really takes off, _then_ we'll have problems, since tbody is
truly optional there....  ;)