Lock position of the room that's focused in GUI

When the currently shown page is the chat of a certain room,
prevent that room from moving around in the left pane due to new
messages/activity or unread/highlight counters change.

When the user switches to another page/room, the previously held lock is
released and that room completes all the moves it would have done if it
wasn't locked.

This makes navigating a room list with lots of activity easier, and
prevent annoyances like clicking on a room with unread messages and
having it immediatly fly down the list (possibly out of scroll view).

docs/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -86,6 +86,11 @@ and this project adheres to
 
 - Improve room page loading speed 
 
+- In the left pane, lock the position of the room corresponding to the 
+  currently visible chat page if any.  
+  This fixes annoyances like clicking on a room with unread messages only to 
+  see it immediatly fly down the list, potentially outside of scrolling view.
+
 - When replying to a message, pressing the reply keybind again while focusing
   on that message will now cancel the reply
 

src/backend/matrix_client.py

@@ -2021,6 +2021,21 @@ class MatrixClient(nio.AsyncClient):
             room.last_event_date = item.date
 
 
+    async def lock_room_position(self, room_id: str, lock: bool) -> None:
+        """Set wheter a room should try to hold its current sort position."""
+
+        room = self.models[self.user_id, "rooms"][room_id]
+
+        if not lock:
+            room._sort_overrides = {}
+            return
+
+        for k in ("last_event_date", "unreads", "highlights", "local_unreads"):
+            room._sort_overrides[k] = getattr(room, k)
+
+        room.notify_change("_sort_overrides")
+
+
     async def register_nio_room(
         self,
         room:                   nio.MatrixRoom,
@@ -2038,6 +2053,7 @@ class MatrixClient(nio.AsyncClient):
             registered = self.models[self.user_id, "rooms"][room.room_id]
         except KeyError:
             registered                   = None
+            sort_overrides               = {}
             last_event_date              = datetime.fromtimestamp(0)
             typing_members               = []
             local_unreads                = False
@@ -2048,6 +2064,7 @@ class MatrixClient(nio.AsyncClient):
                 self.room_contains_unverified(room.room_id)
             )
         else:
+            sort_overrides               = registered._sort_overrides
             last_event_date              = registered.last_event_date
             typing_members               = registered.typing_members
             local_unreads                = registered.local_unreads
@@ -2126,6 +2143,8 @@ class MatrixClient(nio.AsyncClient):
 
             lexical_sorting = self.backend.settings.RoomList.lexical_sort,
             pinned          = room.room_id in pinned.get(self.user_id, []),
+
+            _sort_overrides = sort_overrides,
         )
 
         self.models[self.user_id, "rooms"][room.room_id] = room_item

src/backend/models/items.py

@@ -183,6 +183,15 @@ class Room(ModelItem):
     lexical_sorting: bool = False
     pinned:          bool = False
 
+    # Allowed keys: "last_event_date", "unreads", "highlights", "local_unreads"
+    # Keys in this dict will override their corresponding item fields for the
+    # __lt__ method. This is used when we want to lock a room's position,
+    # e.g. to avoid having the room move around when it is focused in the GUI
+    _sort_overrides: Dict[str, Any] = field(default_factory=dict)
+
+    def _sorting(self, key: str) -> Any:
+        return self._sort_overrides.get(key, getattr(self, key))
+
     def __lt__(self, other: "Room") -> bool:
         by_activity = not self.lexical_sorting
 
@@ -191,10 +200,10 @@ class Room(ModelItem):
             other.pinned,
             self.left,  # Left rooms may have an inviter_id, check them first
             bool(other.inviter_id),
-            bool(by_activity and other.highlights),
-            bool(by_activity and other.unreads),
-            bool(by_activity and other.local_unreads),
-            other.last_event_date if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
+            bool(by_activity and other._sorting("highlights")),
+            bool(by_activity and other._sorting("unreads")),
+            bool(by_activity and other._sorting("local_unreads")),
+            other._sorting("last_event_date") if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
             (self.display_name or self.id).lower(),
             self.id,
 
@@ -203,10 +212,10 @@ class Room(ModelItem):
             self.pinned,
             other.left,
             bool(self.inviter_id),
-            bool(by_activity and self.highlights),
-            bool(by_activity and self.unreads),
-            bool(by_activity and self.local_unreads),
-            self.last_event_date if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
+            bool(by_activity and self._sorting("highlights")),
+            bool(by_activity and self._sorting("unreads")),
+            bool(by_activity and self._sorting("local_unreads")),
+            self._sorting("last_event_date") if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
             (other.display_name or other.id).lower(),
             other.id,
         )
@@ -233,10 +242,10 @@ class AccountOrRoom(Account, Room):
             other.pinned,
             self.left,
             bool(other.inviter_id),
-            bool(by_activity and other.highlights),
-            bool(by_activity and other.unreads),
-            bool(by_activity and other.local_unreads),
-            other.last_event_date if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
+            bool(by_activity and other._sorting("highlights")),
+            bool(by_activity and other._sorting("unreads")),
+            bool(by_activity and other._sorting("local_unreads")),
+            other._sorting("last_event_date") if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
             (self.display_name or self.id).lower(),
             self.id,
 
@@ -247,10 +256,10 @@ class AccountOrRoom(Account, Room):
             self.pinned,
             other.left,
             bool(self.inviter_id),
-            bool(by_activity and self.highlights),
-            bool(by_activity and self.unreads),
-            bool(by_activity and self.local_unreads),
-            self.last_event_date if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
+            bool(by_activity and self._sorting("highlights")),
+            bool(by_activity and self._sorting("unreads")),
+            bool(by_activity and self._sorting("local_unreads")),
+            self._sorting("last_event_date") if by_activity else ZERO_DATE,
             (other.display_name or other.id).lower(),
             other.id,
         )

src/gui/Pages/Chat/ChatPage.qml

@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ HColumnPage {
     id: chatPage
 
     property string loadMembersFutureId: ""
+    property var lockedRoom: null  // null or [userId, roomId]
 
+    readonly property var userRoomId: chat.userRoomId
     readonly property alias roomHeader: roomHeader
     readonly property alias eventList: eventList
     readonly property alias typingMembers: typingMembers
@@ -30,11 +32,26 @@ HColumnPage {
         anchors.fill: parent
     }
 
+    function lockRoomPosition(lock) {
+        if (lock && lockedRoom) py.callClientCoro(
+            lockedRoom[0], "lock_room_position", [lockedRoom[1], false],
+        )
+
+        lockedRoom = lock ? [chat.userId, chat.roomId] : null
+        py.callClientCoro(
+            chat.userId, "lock_room_position", [chat.roomId, lock],
+        )
+    }
+
+
     padding: 0
     column.spacing: 0
 
-    Component.onDestruction:
+    onUserRoomIdChanged: lockRoomPosition(true)
+    Component.onDestruction: {
+        lockRoomPosition(false)
         if (loadMembersFutureId) py.cancelCoro(loadMembersFutureId)
+    }
 
     Timer {
         interval: 200