Day 21

Hours worked/Total: 5/46

Day Recap

Began working on a tree file explorer. Successfully implemented a basic TreeView in Avalonia with dummy data to understand its functionality. Integrated a dynamic structure to show the home folder as the top-level node, generating subnodes dynamically. Added vertical scrolling to the sidebar for better usability.

What I Did

• Explored the TreeView component:
  
  • Added Avalonia’s TreeView with dummy data to test basic functionality.
  • Learned how TreeView handles hierarchical data through item templates and binding to collections.
• Built the tree structure dynamically:
  • Displayed the home folder as the top-level node in the TreeView.
  • Generated subnodes dynamically for each folder.
  • Faced challenges with updating the hierarchy when the file system changes.
  • Had to recreate the entire tree structure to reflect updates, which feels inefficient and messy.
• Improved sidebar usability:
  • Made the sidebar scrollable vertically to accommodate larger folder structures.
  • Styled the scrollbar to fit the app’s design.

Remarks

The TreeView component is promising but requires a lot of manual handling to work effectively with a dynamic file structure. Rebuilding the tree on each change feels hacky and raises performance concerns for larger file systems. A more efficient approach might involve selectively updating parts of the tree.

Next Goals

Start working on file explorer.