A tree table contains a hierarchical set of data structured in rows and columns and grouped into nodes. The analytical table (also know as ALV) can provide additional details in several non-hierarchical columns per line item. 

Usage

Trees are used to display and work with large amounts of hierarchical data. They have a high data density and therefore convey an immediate feeling of complexity. Ideally, you should only show trees with a lot of hierarchical data as a last resort. Try the following instead:

• Break down the data into manageable chunks and allow the user to navigate or drill down between them.
• Use charts with drilldown functionality until the amount of data is more manageable.

Responsiveness

A tree table is available for desktops and tablets, but not in smartphone sizes. It supports touch devices, but is not optimized for small screens.

If you use a tree table, note that you have to implement a fallback solution for small screens. This fallback solution does not need to support all use cases.

Possible fallback solutions are as follows:

• Use navigation to different pages instead of a tree structure. This works well for structures that are no more than four levels deep.
• Remove levels until only one or two remain. Replace a single-level tree by a table, and a two-level tree by a grouped table or a split-screen layout.
• Use filtering instead of a tree structure.

You can try to create a fallback based on these ideas, but a completely different solution, such as showing charts in a read-only case, might be more appropriate.

Types

Like all SAP Fiori controls, the tree table is shown in compact mode on a desktop and in cozy mode on tablets.

For a desktop, you can also display even more rows on the same screen height by adding the condensed mode in addition to the compact mode. This renders less white space for each item.

Note that the condensed content density has always to be set in addition to compact. Do not use condensed on its own. Do not mix condensed with cozy. Doing so could lead to unpredictable and / or unwanted results, e.g. cozy sized controls in condensed sized containers, missing padings, etc.

Note that neither compact mode nor condensed mode can be interacted with via touch. Even on a desktop with a touch screen, users will have difficulty selecting rows or using controls inside the cells when using their fingers.

Furthermore, condensed mode is not available for Internet Explorer 9. If condensed mode is to be used, please provide a fallback.

For more information on cozy and compact modes, see content density.

Compact Mode

Condensed Mode

In rare cases, show actions within the line item. An example would be an Add to Cart button in a shopping application. Since these actions are repeated in every line and thus use a lot of screen real estate, only do this for one or two actions at most. In this case, show the action trigger near the content to which it belongs. Do not add a specific column for actions, but instead use transparent-style buttons. An exception to this is if the action trigger belongs to a link.

Behavior and Interaction

Selection

The tree provides the following possibilities:

No selection: Items cannot be selected. (property: selectionMode = None)

Single selection: One item in the tree table can be selected. A row selector column is shown. (property: selectionMode = Single)

Multiple selection: One or more items can be selected. The tree table provides a column with checkboxes on the left-hand side. Clicking a checkbox toggles the state of the corresponding row from deselected to selected and back. The Shift key can be used to select a range.

For multiple selection, you can choose between two variants.

• Multi-toggle mode (property: selectionMode = MultiToggle)
• Multi-selection plug-in (sap.ui.table.plugins.MultiSelectionPlugin)

These variants behave differently when the user selects more items than are currently loaded in the front end.

Multi-toggle

In multi-toggle mode, you can offer a Select All checkbox to the left of the column header (property: enableSelectAll). Selecting this checkbox selects or deselects all items that are currently loaded in the front end. All other items are not selected/deselected. If the application data is stored in the back end, scrolling down further can reveal additional unselected items. The same can happen with range selections if not all items in the selected range have been loaded to the front end.

Multi-selection plug-in

If you use this plug-in instead of the multi-toggle selection mode, the behavior for range selection and Select All changes:

• By default, a dedicated Deselect All button replaces the Select All checkbox. There is no default UI element for selecting all items.
• You can set a limit for the number of items that can be selected (sap.ui.table.plugins.MultiSelectionPlugin, property: limit). This limit has the following effect:
  • The range that can be selected using the Shift key is limited to the specified number of items (default = 200). The table automatically scrolls back to the last selected item and a message can appear (sap.ui.table.plugins.MultiSelectionPlugin, property: enableNotification). Users can select more items by selecting additional ranges (the specified limit applies each time).
  • If the selection limit is set to 0, a Select All checkbox is shown. There is also no limit on the number of items that can be selected in a range. All selected items are loaded, which can lead to performance issues for large data sets.
• If selected items are not already available in the front end, they are loaded automatically by the plug-in and set as selected.

Selection Behavior

An item can be selected in different ways, depending on the configuration of the tree table (sap.ui.table.Table, property: selectionBehavior):

• Row: An item is selected by clicking the checkbox or the row. Use this option for multi-selection tree tables if clicking a row or a cell is not used for anything else.
• RowSelector: An item is selected only by clicking the checkbox in the selector cell. Use this option if clicking the row (or a cell inside the row) is used for something else, such as navigation.
• RowOnly: An item is selected only by clicking the row, and not using checkboxes in the selector cells. Use this for single-selection tree tables if clicking a row or a cell is not used for another purpose, such as navigation.

Set the property collapseRecursive to “false” in order to keep the selection on subnodes even after collapsing and expanding the root node.

Drag and Drop

One or several items can be repositioned within a table or moved to other UI elements using drag and drop operations (sap.ui.table.TreeTable, aggregation: dragDropConfig). While being dragged, the items are shown as ghost elements on the mouse cursor.

Drop targets can be on items, between items, or both (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition). On a drop target, the mouse cursor changes to either a “copy”, “link”, “move”, or “none” cursor. “None” indicates that the dragged item cannot be dropped in the current position  (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropEffect).

Drag and drop is only available on supporting browsers.

Column Header Menu

Column Handling

Show/Hide Columns

Columns can be shown and hidden. If the tree column is hidden, the following column is the tree column.

Rearrange Columns

The user rearranges columns by dragging and dropping the corresponding column header. The tree column is always the first column and cannot be dragged.

Resize Columns

Columns are resized as follows:

• Mouse interaction: The user drags the separator line between two columns (sap.ui.table. Column, property: Resizable). Double-clicking the line optimizes the column according to the length of the currently visible data and the label of the column header (sap.ui.table.Column, property: Autoresizable). Note that auto-resizing works only if the cells in this column contain one of the following controls: text, label, link, or input.
• Touch interaction: The user clicks or taps the column header to reveal two buttons: One to show the column header menu, and one for resizing. The user drags the latter to resize the column.

Context Menu

Cell Content

The tree is traditional in that each cell can contain only one data point in one single line.

Apart from plain read-only text, cells can contain the following:

• Text
• Label
• Object status
• Icon
• Button
• Input
• Date picker
• Select
• Combo box
• The following micro charts in size XS: Bullet, comparison, stacked bar
• Multi-combo box
• Multi-input field
• Checkbox
• Link
• Currency
• Rating Indicator
• Progress indicator

While it is technically possible to also use other controls, doing so could lead to issues in regards to alignment, condensed mode, screen reader support, and keyboard support.

If you use text, use only single-line text to keep the same row height. Truncate if necessary as this prevents adverse side effects when scrolling vertically (sap.m.Text, property: wrapping, value: false).

Guidelines

Filtering

What exactly needs to stay or be removed is highly dependent on the kind of structure and data your tree table displays. For many trees, the following approach works well if you want to apply filters only to the leaves of a tree:

• Remove all leaves that don’t fit the filter criteria
• Remove empty nodes

Where nodes need to be filtered, keep the following in mind:

• A node may or may not fit the filter criteria.
• A node can contain items (nodes and/or leaves) that fit the filter criteria.

Because of this, the results might contain more nodes than those that are relevant for the filter criteria.

Sorting

First of all: Is sorting meaningful in your tree? If so, decide on a meaningful default sort order.

If sorting is meaningful, is it meaningful on all levels? Or does the tree structure need to be stable? In the latter case, sort only leaves, but not nodes.

To display the current sort state, an icon is shown in the column header of the most recently sorted column. This icon indicates the sort direction (sap.ui.table.Column, properties: sorted, sortOrder, sortProperty).

The descending sort order must always be the exact reverse of the ascending sort order. For each column, provide a meaningful sort order. For example:

• Sort text alphabetically
• Sort numbers by their value
• Sort status information by the severity of the status:
  • Ascending: Sort status information from positive to negative, with neutral last.
  • Descending: Sort status information from negative to positive, with neutral first.

• • Ascending with different values per severity level: Sort status information from positive to negative, with neutral last. Sort different values within a severity level (semantic color) alphabetically.
  • Descending with different values per severity level: Sort status information from negative to positive, with neutral first. Sort different values within a severity level (semantic color) alphabetically.

Loading Data

To indicate that the table is currently loading items, use the busy state (sap.ui.table.TreeTable, property: busy). Do not show any items or text. As soon as the data has been loaded, remove the busy state and show all items.

Initital Display

Think of the initial expand / collapse state of a tree: If your structure contains many items on the root level, it might make sense to collapse the whole tree in the beginning.

In contrast, if the main items to work with are displayed on a deeper level (e.g. the parent nodes are just some kind of categorization), the tree should be expanded up to the first level where the needed items appear.

Selection

• We strongly recommend using the multi-selection plug-in. This ensures that all items selected using Select All or as part of a range are included – even if some items were not initially loaded in the front end. This is not the case if you use the multi-toggle option.
• Do not limit the range selection for the multi-selection plug-in unless you have to.
  • If the dataset is small and/or completely available in the front-end, set the limit property to 0 to enable the Select All option and allow users to select any range.
  • If you have a large dataset, set a limit on the number of selected items to avoid performance issues. Also bear in mind that some actions won’t be helpful if the dataset is too big (for example, a delete operation on 2 million database entries).
• When setting a limit, also display the corresponding message when the user selects more items at once than the limit allows (sap.ui.table.plugins.MultiSelectionPlugin, property: enableNotification).

• In multiple selection mode, do not show checkboxes in the first data column in the default delivery to avoid confusion.

Empty Table

Try to avoid empty tables. If necessary, provide instructions on how to fill the tree table with data.

Remove the item count in the table title if there are zero items.

Add Items

For adding items, place an Add or Create text button on the table toolbar.

• Use Create if the button adds a brand new item that doesn’t yet exist on the database.
• Use Add if the item already exists and is merely added or assigned to the current object.

Show new items as the first item of the tree table or node:

• If nothing is selected, add the new item to the root.
• If a single node is selected, add the new item to the selected node.
• If a single leaf is selected, add the new item as child of this leaf. The original selected item becomes a node.

If your tree doesn’t support adding items to the root, selected node, or selected leaf, disable Create or Add for the corresponding levels.

Disable Create or Add if more than one item is selected.

For more details, see the guidelines for managing objects (including subarticles).

Enabling/Disabling Actions

To indicate if an action can be applied to the current selection:

• Enable the action if it can be applied to all selected items.
• Enable the action if it can be applied to some of the selected items. If the action is triggered, show a message that informs the user how many items will be affected. Let the user choose whether to apply the action anyway or cancel the action.
• Only disable the action if it can be applied to none of the selected items.

For more details, see UI Element – States.

If the action was applied and the items are still available, keep them selected.

Columns

Minimize the number of columns. Avoid the need to scroll horizontally in the default delivery. In the first column, show the hierarchical data, which should identify the line item. Choose the name over the ID, but if both are needed, show the name first, then the ID.

The tree table assigns the same width to each column by default. It is recommended that you overwrite this default to provide optimal space for your content (sap.ui.table.Column, property: width).

If you define the column width in pixels or rems, resizing a column affects only the width of this specific column. Reducing the browser window size results in a scrollbar. After resizing a column, a scrollbar appears if the width of the table is not enough to show all columns. If the columns use less space than is available, white space appears on the right side of the last column.

If you define the column width as a percentage, resizing one column affects the width of several or all columns. Text becomes truncated when the browser window size is reduced. This is done to make sure that all columns together fill the space of the table. A scrollbar appears only in case the automatic change of the column widths is not enough to display all columns. To avoid the side effect of undersized columns, a minimum width can be set per column. Please be aware that this minimum width is only taken into account if columns are automatically resized. End users are still able to reduce the column width below the provided minimum. (sap.ui.table.Column, properties: width, minWidth)

If you define the column width as “auto”, the behavior is the same as for “percentage”. In contrast to percentage, “auto” distributes the columns equally.

To decide on how to set the column width (pixel/rem/em vs. percent/auto), keep the following tips in mind:

• For tables with only 2 to 3 columns, use pixel-based units. This ensures that on wide screens the values in the columns are not spread over the whole screen, which improves readability of line items.
• For tables with many columns, where a horizontal scrollbar is usually needed, use pixel-based units. This avoids unintended side effects when resizing columns.
• For all other tables, use whatever fits your case better.

Be cautious with mixing columns with pixel-based and percentage-based widths. While this can be helpful in some cases, it could also cause even more unintended side effects when resizing a column. When using percentage-based widths for one or more columns, think of the possibility to not allow end users to resize columns at all.

Alignment of Cell Content

Align column headers according to their cell content:

• Texts are left-aligned.
• Numbers (except for IDs), dates, and times are right-aligned.
• Icons are centered.
• Micro charts are left-aligned.

In addition, align amounts with currencies to the decimal point. You can do this with the sap.ui.unified.Currency control.

Note that most currencies have two digits after the decimal point, but there are exceptions, for example:

• The Tunisian dinar has three digits.
• The Japanese yen has no digits.

In tree tables with mixed currencies, all amounts still have to be aligned to the decimal point.

To enable positive and negative values to be identified more easily, position the minus sign to the right of the number. It is placed in the same position in every row.

For more information, see currency.

Formatting Cell Content

• Note that there are different locale formats, so show dates, times, and numbers in the correct format for the user’s language/country.
• If you show both a a text and an ID, consider the requirements for sorting, grouping and filtering:
  • If users need to sort, group, and/or filter by both text and ID, show the text and ID in two separate columns.
  • If users only need to sort, group, and/or filter by either text or ID, show the ID in parentheses after the corresponding text.
• If the unit of measurement is the same for all rows, show the unit of measurement in the column header. Otherwise, show the unit of measurement within the row.
• If you want to let users sort, filter, or group by amount and by unit of measure independently, put both in different columns. If you combine them in one column, offer only sorting, filtering, and grouping by amount.

Tree vs. Table

Trees are more complex than tables due to their hierarchical view. Users tend to have more problems finding items in hierarchical views than in flat lists, except where the hierarchical view is natural. By natural we mean that every child node should be part of only one parent, and this relationship between the child and parent is clear and well known.

When you use trees, you should choose broad hierarchies over deep hierarchies. Deep hierarchies make finding items more complicated. So try to reduce hierarchical levels where possible, especially if the hierarchy is not natural. Ideally, a tree should have a maximum of four levels, the first two of which should contain the most important items.

You can use the following methods to reduce hierarchy levels:

• Avoid single root nodes. A single root node is often used to provide a Select All feature. Since the tree control provides an extra space for a Select All feature, the root node is not usually needed.
• When you use only two levels, choose a grouped table or grouped ALV over a tree table control. Expand all groups for the default delivery.
• Container nodes at the top level can usually be replaced by tabs or value pickers.
• Eliminate unnecessary mid-level containers, for example, by combining redundant ones.
• Exercise care when using a tree due to its overall complexity. The hierarchical structure of the data does not necessarily mean that a tree control is required.

Design Concepts

The tree table can be used to display large amounts of hierarchical data. Unfortunately, tree tables have a high data density and therefore convey an immediate feeling of complexity. Ideally, tree tables with large amounts of data should only be shown if there is no other option. You should instead try the following:

• Flatten the data. A list, table, or ALV is still complex, but less so than a tree table.
• Break down the data into manageable chunks. Allow the user to navigate or drill down between them.
• Use charts with drilldown functionality until the amount of data is more manageable.

Try to avoid horizontal scrolling in the default delivery.

Navigation

To trigger navigation on line item level, choose one of the following options:

• Use a link for the attribute that identifies the row. Clicking the link triggers the navigation. This is the preferred option.
• Add the RowActions column and show the navigation arrow (  ) at the end of the row. No column header text is required. The navigation column is fixed and will not scroll away. Users also cannot personalize this column. The navigation arrow triggers the navigation.
  Do not use the RowActions column for actions other than navigation and deletion.

Special case: Multi-selection in a master-detail scenario
When a multi-selection table is used in a master-detail scenario, it is not clear which item was last opened (for example, which item is currently shown in the second column of a flexible column layout). In this case, you can display a “navigated” indicator to show which item is currently open.

Examples of Incorrect and Correct Usage

• Consider persisting the layout settings. When a user reopens the app, show the tree table with the same column sizes, column order, and view settings as last defined by this user.
• Use the Select All feature only if it makes sense. Note that selecting a lot of data also takes time and might not be appropriate for all use cases. For example, a delete operation on two million database entries might not be very helpful in many cases.
• Set the property collapseRecursive to “false” in order to keep the selection on subnodes even after collapsing and expanding the root node.

Empty Tree Tables

Avoid empty tree tables. If necessary, provide instructions on how to fill the tree table with data (sap.ui.table.TreeTable, properties: noDataText, showNoData).

Examples:

• If a tree table is initially empty, provide at least a basic text:
  No items available.
  Overwrite this whenever a hint can be provided on how to fill the tree table with data.
• If a tree table is used together with a filter bar (as in the list report), and is initially empty, use the following text:
  No filters set. To start, enter your search and filter settings and run the search.
• If a tree table is used together with a filter bar and the filter does not return results, use the following text:
  No items found. Check the search and filter settings.

Adapt the texts above if:

• The standard text is not precise enough for your use case (for example, no search is offered, only the search is offered).
• You are using the live search (no Go button in the filter bar). In this case, leave out “run the search”.
• The standard text is misleading (for example, if the data is filled based on a master-detail pattern instead of search and filter settings).

Drag and Drop

Drag and drop is “invisible” on the UI: users can’t see where dragging is available and where it isn’t. Also, because there is no generic keyboard interaction, drag and drop isn’t accessible. Moreover, drag and drop is not available on all browsers. For these reasons, offer drag and drop only in addition to existing (and visible) UI elements that fulfill the same purpose. For example, offer (toolbar) buttons for moving or for copying and pasting items.

If you offer drag and drop for rearranging items within a tree table, use the following options:

• For dropping items as a child, use whole nodes as drop targets (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition.On).
• For dropping items on the same level, use the space between items as drop targets (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition.Between).
• If you want to allow users to drop items as a child or sibling, offer both drop targets (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition.OnOrBetween).

This provides better feedback on where the item will be inserted. Show the “move” mouse cursor (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropEffect.Move).

Do not combine rearranging items within one level and sorting. If you really need to do so, make sure there is a dedicated sort criterion for the user-defined sort order, and only offer options for rearranging items if this sort order is set.

Moving items from one node to another can be combined with sorting without any issues.

Visible Alternatives to Drag and Drop

Depending on the functionality you need, use one or more of the following alternatives:

• To move items up or down within a node:
  Use the  Move Up and  Move Down buttons on the toolbar. These buttons move the selected items until the first selected item can’t be moved up / the last selected item can’t be moved down any further.
  Depending on your tree, this can make sense for both leaves and nodes, only for leaves, or only for nodes. When moving a node, move the whole node and (if applicable) all its children up or down to the next position within the parent node.
  Always make sure that when the user moves an item in one direction and then moves it back, the order is the same as it was before.
  Do not combine the option to move items up and down with sorting.
• To move items to another node:
  Use Copy and Paste buttons on the toolbar.
  Alternatively, offer a Move To button. Clicking Move To opens a dialog that shows all the nodes of the tree, but no leaves. Selecting an item in this dialog closes the dialog and moves the corresponding items to the selected node.
• To change the level of an item:
  In some trees, such as document structures, users can change the level of an item without affecting the level of parent or child items. In this case, use left and right arrow buttons (   ).

Context Menu

Use the context menu only to give users a quick way of accessing functions that are already available elsewhere (for example, as buttons in the toolbar). Don’t just offer actions in the context menu itself, as users might not realize that these actions are available at all.

The context menu can be triggered for the table, row, or cell. However, we do not recommend using context menus for cells: because the content of a cell is a different touch target than the cell itself, opening a cell context menu via touch is quite hard, even in cozy mode.

Do not combine context menus with condensed mode: editable controls fill the entire space inside a cell. Because of this, context menus cannot be opened at all with touch or mouse interaction.

Tables in Object Pages

In the object page, we advise against using analytical, grid, and tree tables. Instead, use a responsive table and offer navigation to a list report with the table types mentioned above.

For more information on the use of tables within the object page, see the Tables section of the Object Page article.

Export to Spreadsheet

On the table toolbar, apps can provide a menu button for exporting table data to a spreadsheet. For the export, use the export to spreadsheet function.

Resources

Want to dive deeper? Follow the links below to find out more about related controls, the SAPUI5 implementation, and the visual design.

Within SAP Fiori, we distinguish between tree tables and trees. Both usually allow the user to display and work with a hierarchical set of items. While tree tables are usually used for more complex data, trees are generally used for rather basic data. Trees are mostly used in the master list for a master-detail scenario using the flexible column layout and in popovers or dialogs. In certain use cases, they can also be used in the dynamic page layout.

In the case of tree tables and trees, items that contain additional items are called nodes, while items that do not contain any other items are called leaves. If available, a single topmost node is called a root node. Apart from the hierarchical structure of its nodes and leaves, a tree is quite similar to a list.

Usage

Use the tree if:

• You need to display the key identifier of hierarchically structured items (for example in the first column of the flexible column layout).
• Selecting one or more items out of a set of hierarchically structured items is a main use case.
• The hierarchy has a restricted number of levels (up to about 12, depending on the content) and items (around 200).
• You want to have only one implementation for all devices.

Do not use the tree if:

• The main use case is to select one item from a very small number of non-hierarchical items, without viewing additional details. In this case, a select or combo box might be more appropriate.
• Items are not structured hierarchically. Use a list instead.
• The hierarchy turns out to have only two levels. In this case, use a grouped list.
• The hierarchy turns out to be just a categorization based on several details of the item. In this case, an analytical table provides multi-level grouping. Note that the analytical table is not fully responsive. It is only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• You need to display very deep hierarchies with additional data per item. In this case, use a tree table. Note that the tree table is not fully responsive. It is only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• The structure contains more than around 200 items. In this case, use the tree table. It is optimized for large item sets and provides better performance. Note that the tree table is not fully responsive. It is only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• You need an overview of a large amount of data. In this case, use a chart.

Check out the table overview to decide which SAP Fiori table is most suitable for your needs.

Responsiveness

Layout

Components

Line Item Level

Expandable and Collapsible Nodes

Navigating

Editing Items

Clicking an Item

Context Menu

Drag and Drop

Guidelines

Tree vs. List

Broad vs. Deep Hierarchies

Design Concepts

The tree can be used to display hierarchical data. Unfortunately, trees convey an immediate feeling of complexity. Ideally, show trees only if there is no other option. You should instead try the following:

• Flatten the data. A list is still complex, but less so than a tree. A combo box might also fit in some use cases.
• When only two levels are needed, a grouped list control can be used. This works well, where group nodes are used for categorizing their children and where the group nodes themselves do not need to be selectable.
• Break down the data into manageable chunks. Allow the user to navigate or drill down between them.
• Use charts with drilldown functionality until the amount of data is more manageable.

Design for Performance

To optimize performance, we recommend showing no more than 200 items at once in the tree. For larger datasets (up to 1,000 items), use the “growing” mechanism to limit the number of displayed items, and make sure that users can filter the data.

Title

Loading Data

Initial Display

Think of the initial expandable/collapsible state of a tree. If your structure contains many items on the root level, it might make sense to collapse the whole tree in its initial state.

In contrast, if the most important items are displayed on a deeper level (if, for example, the parent nodes are simply a kind of categorization), the tree should be expanded up to the first level where the most important items immediately appear.

Content Formatting

Highlighting Items

Item States

Show only one state at any one time.

Actions

To trigger actions on items, show the actions on a toolbar above the tree. Do not offer action triggering on multiple items if the tree is expected to have fewer than 10 items in most cases.
The following actions on single items must always be in-line:

From these three actions (delete, navigation, and edit), you can combine delete and edit, or delete and navigation. Edit and navigation cannot be combined.

To trigger actions that are independent of the selection, show the actions on a toolbar above the tree. For example: Add, Collapse All, Expand All, …

To trigger a default action on the entire item, use the “Active” or “DetailAndActive” item type (sap.m.TreeItem / sap.m.ListItemBase, property: type, value: sap.m.ListType.Active). Active items trigger an event when clicked, which can be handled by apps, for example, to open a dialog. Selection and expanding/collapsing a node does not trigger the event, but are handled by the tree. Do not use this for navigation, to switch the line item to an edit state, or to delete the item.
Active can be combined with edit and delete, but not with navigation. Do not combine active with single selection master.

Add Items

For adding items, place an Add or Create text button on the toolbar.

• Use Create if the button adds a brand new item that doesn’t yet exist on the database.
• Use Add if the item already exists and is merely added or assigned to the current object.

Show new items as the first item of the tree or node:

• If nothing is selected, add the new item to the root.
• If a single node is selected, add the new item to the selected node.
• If a single leaf is selected, add the new item as a child of this leaf. The original selected item becomes a node.

If your tree doesn’t support adding items to the root, selected node, or selected leaf, disable Create or Add for the corresponding levels.

Disable Create or Add if more than one item is selected.

For more details, see guidelines for managing objects (including subarticles).

Editing Items

To edit items, add an Edit button either in-line on the toolbar above the tree. Triggering the button either opens a dialog or navigates to an editable details page.

For mass editing:

• Provide multiselection (sap.m.Tree/ sap.m.ListBase, property: mode, value: sap.m.ListMode.MultiSelect).
• Provide an Edit button on the toolbar above the tree.
• If several items are selected, triggering the Edit button opens a dialog in which the user edits the corresponding fields for all selected items.

For more details, see mass editing.

Context Menu

Use the context menu only to give users a quick way of accessing functions that are already available elsewhere (for example, as buttons in the toolbar).

Don’t just offer actions in the context menu itself, as users might not realize that these actions are available at all.

Drag and Drop

Sorting

Resources

The responsive table is the default table in SAP Fiori. It contains a set of line items and is fully responsive. Depending on the scenario, users can also navigate from the line items to further details.

A line item contains several data points sorted into columns. A data point refers to a unit of information, such as a number, a text, a unit of measurement, and so on, which can be used to form the content of a table, form or other control. One data point is usually displayed by a control, such as a text, object status, or input field. A control can display more than one data point, for example, by concatenating text.

In contrast to traditional tables, a “cell” of the responsive table is not limited to displaying only one control, and therefore a single cell can present far more than one data point.

Usage

Use the responsive table if:

• You need a table. The responsive table is the default table in SAP Fiori.
• You need to use various controls inside a line item, such as micro charts. By contrast, the analytical table supports only a very limited set of controls.
• The focus is on line items, not on cells. The responsive table is optimized for viewing complete items on all devices.
• Selecting one or more items is a main use case and details are needed to choose the correct item.
• Line items are independent of each other and no operation across columns is needed.
• You want to have only one implementation for all devices. As the name suggests, the responsive table is responsive.

Do not use the responsive table if:

• The main use case is to select one item from a very small number of items, without viewing additional details. In this case, a select or combo box might be more appropriate.
• The main use case is to select one item from several items, with the possibility of viewing only a few details per item. In this case, a list might be more appropriate. Pay attention to the layout of the list item to ensure that it has a pleasant appearance.
• The cell level and the spatial relationship between cells is more important than the line item. In this case, use the analytical table or grid table. Examples include spreadsheet analyses and waterfall charts. Note that neither the analytical table nor the grid table are fully responsive. Both are only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• You expect the table to contain more than around 1,000 rows. Try using the analytical table or grid table instead; they are easier to handle, perform better, and are optimized for handling large numbers of items.
  Note that neither the analytical table nor the grid table are fully responsive. Both are only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• Comparing items is a major use case. In this case, the analytical table or grid table might be more appropriate because each cell contains only one data point. By contrast, the responsive table offers greater flexibility within line items, including the ability to add more data points per cell and the pop-in function. Both make comparisons more difficult. Note that neither the analytical table nor the grid table are fully responsive. Both are only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• Data needs to be structured in a hierarchical manner. In this case, a tree table might be more appropriate. Although the analytical table can have several grouping levels, it is not as flexible when nodes at several levels contain child nodes. Note that neither the analytical table nor the grid table are fully responsive. Both are only available for desktops and tablets, so you will need to take an adaptive approach by offering an additional UI for smartphones.
• You need an overview of a large amount of data. In this case, use a chart.
• You just need it for layout reasons. In this case, use a layout container such as a horizontal layout or a vertical layout instead.
• You need read-only or editable field-value pairs. In this case, use a form instead. The responsive table is not optimized for form-like input navigation.

See the table overview to decide which SAP Fiori table is most suitable for your needs.

Responsiveness

The responsive table is optimized for viewing one line item at a time with no scrolling or only vertical scrolling, irrespective of the display width.

On smartphones, only the most important data remains in the one-column or two-column table, while all other data is moved to the space between two item rows, known as the “pop-in area”.

In this area, data for the corresponding cell is provided as a label/value pair. The label is defined by the column header, and the value is taken from the corresponding cell. Labels can be displayed next to the value or above the value.

Within the pop-in area, the label/value pairs can be displayed in the following ways (sap.m.Table, property: PopinLayout):

• Block: Label/value pairs are listed one below the other.
• GridSmall: Label/value pairs are displayed next to each other in equally spaced grid cells. An additional column is shown for each 13 rem of available width (208 px with default browser settings). If the number of grid cells exceeds the available width, the grid cells wrap. On S size, this layout transforms automatically to a block layout.
• GridLarge: The display logic is the same as for GridSmall,, but grid columns come with a larger minimum width (26 rem instead of 13 rem).

In all layouts, you can show the labels next to or above (recommended) the corresponding data.

The responsive table uses all the available space, and does not provide any padding. If there is space around the table, it comes from the spacing defined for the surrounding layout container.

To ensure responsiveness, you must configure each column. Depending on the width of the table (in pixels), the column needs to know which of the following responses is required:

• Stay in the table layout.
• Move to the pop-in (sap.m.Column, with the properties: demandPopin, minScreenWidth, popinHAlign, popinDisplay).
• Hide.

By default, the width provided is interpreted as the screen width. If the table does not use the full width of the screen, app developers have to configure the table accordingly (sap.m.Table, property: contextualWidth).

Since you have to define this for each column, you can also handle more than one column at a single breakpoint, such as moving three columns to the pop-in area at once.

Each of the three device types has a predefined value for the screen width. However, you will get better results if you offer more breakpoints by using pixel values instead of the predefined values.

For the smallest screen width, keep the following information in the table layout:

• The identifier of the line item
• The key attribute

The responsive table ensures that at least one column always remains in the table layout.

Example for Block Layout

A typical responsive table.

Example for GridLarge Layout

Behavior and Interaction

The responsive table is quite flexible with regard to its content.

Table Level

Line Item Level

Edit Line Items

Click an Item

Drag and Drop

Context Menu

Cell Level

Showing Information

Add Controls

Alongside textual elements, you can also add any control to a table cell, such as input fields, microcharts, buttons, and so on.

Guidelines

Responsiveness

While the pop-in layouts GridLarge and GridSmall make better use of the available width, they also only look good with content that is specifically designed for pop-in behavior. If you have text-only tables with only one value per column, use the Block layout (sap.m.Table, property: popinLayout).

Place the column header labels in the pop-in area above the corresponding values (sap.m.Column, property: popinDisplay, value: Block). This avoids alignment issues with different content. Be aware that the labels get top-aligned with the adjacent content.
Only place the label next to the corresponding value under the following conditions (sap.m.Column, property: popinDisplay, value: Inline):

• The values are text-only (no input fields, icons, images, micro charts, and so on)
• The available space is at least the double the width of size S.

This avoids truncation or “over-wrapping” of the labels and content.

If a column does not have a column header text (for example, if it always contains the same button with its own label), do not show the header text as a label in the pop-in area either (sap.m.Column, property: popinDisplay, value: withoutHeader). If you forget this setting, you will see an empty space followed by a colon (“:”).

Design for Performance

To optimize performance, we recommend showing no more than 200 items at once in the responsive table. For larger datasets (up to 1,000 items), use the “growing” mechanism to limit the number of displayed items, and make sure that users can filter the data.

Table Title

Implement the table title by using a title control in a toolbar.

Use a table title only if the title of the table is not indicated in the surrounding area. Do not use a table title if it simply repeats text that is already above the table. For example:

• A pricing conditions table is the only control on a tab labeled Pricing Conditions.
• A section or subsection on an object page contains only one table.

Use a table title if you need the item count, table toolbar, or variant management. To avoid repeating text, feel free to use generic text as a table title, such as Items.
Exception: If the surrounding area contains the table title, and both the item count and toolbar can be added to the surrounding area, no additional table title is needed.
Example: An object page (sub-)section contains only one table. In this case, add the item count and the table toolbar to the (sub-)section header.

Selection

Loading Data

Columns – Best Practices

Minimize the number of columns:

• On a smartphone, use only one or two columns, depending on the content.
• On a tablet or desktop, use three to five columns if the responsive table is shown within the flexible column layout. Use about eight columns if using the full screen width, depending on the content.

If the responsive table does not fit into the width provided:

• Hide columns to reduce the width of the table.
• Use pop-in areas to show the whole content by increasing the height of the line items (sap.m.Column, properties: demandPopin, minScreenWidth).

At the smallest size, keep the following information in the table layout:

• The column that identifies the line item.
• The column that contains the key attribute.

If both of these do not fit into the width provided, keep just the column with the line item identifier in the tabular layout.

The responsive table assigns the same width to each column by default. It is recommended that you overwrite this default to provide optimal space for your content (sap.m.Column, property: width).

Optimize column width for its initial content (sap.m.Column, property: width). If the content is dynamic, optimize column width for typical content.

If you need more columns than those that fit on a tablet screen (usually five) to fulfill 80% of your main use cases, offer an option to add, remove, and rearrange columns via the table personalization dialog. Before doing so, try to reduce the number of columns, for example, by using several lines per column or by utilizing the pop-in function. See the cheat sheet for an example.

Column Headers – Best Practices

Within the column header, provide a label for each column (sap.m.Column, aggregation: header). The column header label is reused as a label in the pop-in area.

Exception: If the column does not pop in, no column header label is needed as long as at least one column still has a column header label.

Use controls that wrap and support wrapping with hyphenation, such as text (with wrapping and hyphenation enabled). Do not use controls that truncate.

Keep column headers sticky.

Column headers (sap.m.Column, aggregation: header) usually contain links or text-based controls.

Column headers can also contain other kinds of SAP Fiori controls. However, the column header cannot be aligned vertically, making it difficult to use many controls in the column header. Using other kinds of controls also creates problems with pop-in behavior and could thus lead to accessibility issues. Therefore, exercise caution when using them in a column header.

If a column cell contains several fields, use an umbrella term in the column header (such as Address for fields like Street, ZIP Code, and City).

For text and ID fields, use a generic label (for example, Employee for Name and ID).

If none of these are possible, separate the labels with “/” (for example, Name / Status).

For boolean values, such as checkboxes, find a descriptive text for the column header.

Content Alignment

For alignment of cell content, follow the guidelines below (sap.m.Column, properties: halgin, valign, sap.m.ColumnListItem, property: VAlign). Align the column header horizontally according to the content of the cell.

Exception: Secondary information in a column always follows the alignment of the main information.

Vertical alignment:

Top-align where possible to facilitate reading the content on one line.

Do not use top-alignment if it results in a peculiar layout. This usually happens when controls that need more vertical space are combined with text-only controls, such as input fields. In this case, try center-alignment instead and fine tune it until the layout fits.

Content Formatting

The responsive table provides flexibility, including multiline cells, by enabling every control to be put into a cell.

Avoid truncation. Use controls that wrap the text and support hyphenation.

For example, use text.

Item States

Show only one state at any one time.

Drag and Drop

Drag and drop is “invisible” on the UI: users can’t see where dragging is available and where it isn’t. In addition, it is not accessible, since there is no generic keyboard interaction. Drag and drop is also not available on all browsers. For these reasons, provide it only in addition to existing (and visible) UI elements that fulfill the same purpose. For example, offer (toolbar) buttons for moving or for copying and pasting items.

If you offer drag and drop for rearranging items within the table, use drop targets that are between items (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropPosition.Between). This provides better feedback on where the item will be inserted. Show the “move” mouse cursor (sap.ui.core.dnd.DropEffect.Move).

Do not combine rearranging items and sorting. If you really need to do so, make sure that there is a dedicated sort criterion for the user-defined sort order, and only offer options for rearranging items if this sort order is set.

When combining rearranging items with grouping, be aware that moving items to another group also means that a value of the dropped item changes: because grouping is based on values in a column, the dropped item needs to take on the value of the target group for the corresponding column. If this is not wanted, do not allow users to rearrange items in grouped tables.

Example:
A table is grouped by availability. An item is moved from the group “Not Available” to the group “In Stock”. In this case, the moved item needs to change its availability to “In Stock” to match the target group. If changing the value doesn’t make sense, only allow users to rearrange the items within the same group, or don’t allow rearranging at all.

Context Menu

Use the context menu only to give users a quick way of accessing functions that are already available elsewhere (for example, as buttons in the toolbar).

Don’t just offer actions in the context menu itself, as users might not realize that these actions are available at all.

The context menu can be triggered for the whole table or per row.

Actions

To trigger actions on multiple items, use a multiselection table (sap.m.Table, property: mode, value: sap.m.ListMode.MultiSelect), and offer the corresponding actions on the table toolbar. Keep the table toolbar sticky (sap.m.Table, property: sticky).

Do not offer actions for multiple items if the table is expected to have fewer than 10 items in most cases.

To trigger actions on a single item only (sap.m.Table, property: mode, value: sap.m.ListMode.SingleSelectMaster):

• Offer the corresponding actions in the footer toolbar if the responsive table is the only area on the screen to which actions can be applied. This has the advantage that the actions on the footer toolbar are fixed on the screen and cannot be scrolled away.
• In other cases, show the actions on the table toolbar.
• In rare cases, show the actions within the line item. One example would be an Add to Cart button in a shopping application. Since these actions are repeated in every line and thus use a lot of screen real estate, only do this for one or two actions at most. In this case, show the action trigger near the content to which it belongs. Do not add a specific column for actions. An exception to this is if the action trigger belongs to a link.

Enabling/Disabling Actions

To indicate if an action can be applied to the current selection:

• Enable the action if it can be applied to all selected items.
• Enable the action if it can be applied to some of the selected items. If the action is triggered, show a message that informs the user how many items will be affected. Give users the option to apply the action anyway or to cancel the action.
• Only disable the action if it can be applied to none of the selected items.

For more details, see UI Element – States.

If the action was applied, and if the items are still available, keep them selected.

The following actions on single items must always be in-line:

From these three actions (delete, navigation, and edit), you can combine delete and edit, or delete and navigation.

Edit and navigation cannot be combined.

To trigger actions that are independent of the selection, show the actions on the table toolbar. Examples of such actions are add, edit (in the sense of changing the whole table to edit mode), sort, filter, group (or view settings), and table personalization.

To trigger a default action on the whole line item, use the “Active” or “DetailAndActive” column list item type (sap.m.ColumnListItem/ sap.m.ListItemBase, property: type, value: sap.m.ListType.Active).

Active items trigger an event when clicked, which can be handled by apps (for example, to open a dialog). Clicks on interactive controls within the item do not trigger the event, but are handled by the interactive control. Do not use this for navigation, to switch the line item to an edit state, or to delete the item.

Active can be combined with edit and delete, but not with navigation. Do not combine active with single selection.

Add Items

For adding items, place an Add or Create text button on the table toolbar.

• Use Create if the button adds a brand new item that doesn’t yet exist on the database.
• Use Add if the item already exists and is merely added or assigned to the current object.

Show new items as the first item of the table, with a visual highlight at the beginning of the row.

There are three options for adding an item after the Add button is pressed. In order of priority (most recommended first), these are:

1. Add the item inline. Create an empty, editable row as the first item of the table. Show the Save button on the table toolbar. This option is recommended for simple scenarios with just a few columns and no option to hide columns.
2. Open a dialog for larger tables with up to 8 editable columns. Save the new item at the dialog level.
3. Navigate to a new page. This behavior should only be used for very complex scenarios that cannot be handled by a dialog (for example, tables with more than 8 columns). When the user presses Save in the footer toolbar of the create page, navigate back to the table.

A new item can have three different states:

1. New: The item was just created and is in edit mode. It is highlighted with a visual indicator.
2. Recent: The item was saved, but is still highlighted and displayed as the first item of the table. Current filter, sort and group criteria are ignored to keep the item visible.
3. As soon as the responsive table is sorted, filtered, or grouped again, the action is also applied to the new item. It then also loses the visual highlight.

In the context of the draft handling new items are not saved on table level, but rather with the entire draft.

For more details, see the guidelines for managing objects (including subarticles).

Editable Content

For editable content, use input fields and any other interactive controls within the table cells that meet your input needs.

All SAPUI5 controls can be used.

If you need edit mode, change your text controls, such as label, text, and link, to input fields, or other appropriate controls as soon as you switch to edit mode, but not before.

You can do this by exchanging the control or, in more complex cases, by exchanging the entire responsive table.

For mass editing items:

• Provide multiselection (sap.m.Table/ sap.m.ListBase, property: mode, value: sap.m.ListMode.MultiSelect).
• Provide an Edit button.
• If several items are selected, choosing the Edit button opens a dialog in which the user edits the corresponding fields for all selected items.

For details, see mass editing.

Persist the view settings. When a user reopens the app, show the responsive table with the same sort, filter, and group settings as last defined by this user.

Personalization

To add, remove, or rearrange columns, use the table personalization dialog. Trigger the dialog via a button in the table toolbar.

Offer personalization if you need more columns than those that fit on a tablet screen, which is usually five, to fulfill 80% of your main use cases. Before doing so, try to reduce the number of columns, for example, by using several lines per column or by utilizing the pop-in function. See the cheat sheet for an example.

If all columns are hidden, the table shows a corresponding “no data” text.

Persist the column layout settings. When a user reopens the app, show the responsive table with the same column layout as last defined by this user.

Tables in Object Pages

To show a table in the object page content area, use the responsive table.

A responsive table with up to 20 expected items can be displayed right away, without lazy loading.
If you expect the table to have more than 20 items, use one of the following 3 options:

1. Lazy loading (More button): Use this option if you expect to have up to 100 items.
2. Tab navigation: If you expect to have more than 50 to 100 items, but less than 400, use the object page with tab navigation instead of anchor navigation. Put the table on a dedicated tab.
3. Navigation to a list report: If you expect the table to have more than 400 items, or if the tab approach is unsuitable, restrict the number of items in the table itself to a reasonable amount. To provide the user with a way to work with the entire table, offer navigation to a separate list report containing the full table.

For all of the three options mentioned above, we recommend providing a search, and if feasible, sort and filter capabilities for the table in the object page. Grouping should be avoided.

For more information on the use of tables within the object page, see the Tables section of the Object Page article.

Export to Spreadsheet

On the table toolbar, apps can provide a menu button for exporting table data to a spreadsheet. For the export, use the export to spreadsheet function.

Paste

To paste data from the clipboard to the table, the browser functionality for paste can be used (CTRL + V or browser context menu).

• If the focus is on row level, the app has to take the data from the clipboard and add it to the corresponding controls within the table.
• If the focus is on an editable control within the table, the control gets the data automatically.

Pasting via context menu does not work if a custom context menu is used.

Properties

sap.m.Table

The following additional properties are available for the responsive table:

• The property: fixedLayout defines the algorithm the control uses to define column width. Setting it to “false” would perform automatic calculations for the column width, based on the longest non-breakable content. You should always set it to “true” for performance reasons. Exceptions are permissible if the table has only a few columns for a large width and fewer than 10 rows are displayed.
• The property: backgroundDesign defines the background on which items are rendered. Use the default value.
• The property: showOverlay provides an overlay on the whole table, which prevents use of the responsive table. This is used within the list report floorplan to mark the table as outdated after filter settings have been changed but the new filter settings have not yet been applied. Do not use it in other cases.
• The property: inset adds a margin on all sides of the responsive table.
• The property: headerText is a simple way to set the table title if you just need a title. However, do not use any of the following:
  • A separate toolbar
  • variantManagement
  • headerToolbar aggregation
• The property: headerDesign affects the appearance of the header if the theme supports it. Leave the default value as it is.
• The property: footerText adds a small additional row below the table footer or last item. This row can contain text only. Do not use this property.
• The property: width defines the width of the whole table.
• The property: includeItemInSelection uses a click on the whole line item to select the corresponding item if the responsive table is in a selection mode. This competes with other settings like “Navigation” or “Active” and should therefore not be used.
• The property: enableBusyIndicator automatically shows a busy indicator while data is loaded. (In contrast to the property: busy, where the application can control when the table is set to busy state)
• The property: modeAnimationOn does not have any effect. Do not use it.
• The property: showSeparators allows you to show all, none, or some separators. The default setting, which is to show all separators, is to be used.
• The property: swipeDirection allows you to define the direction in which to swipe if additional actions are hidden behind a table row. This works only on touch devices. Do not use this property.
• The property: rememberSelections leaves items selected even if they are not currently visible, for example, through filtering. If this behavior is not wanted, set the flag to “false”, but you should do so only in exceptional cases.
• The property: busy sets the table to a busy state. While in busy state, the whole table cannot be used and items cannot be read due to an overlay.
• The property: busyIndicatorDelay defines the time after which a busy state is shown after the responsive table has been set to this state. Use the default value.
• The property: visible shows the table (“true”) or hides it (“false”).
• The property: tooltip does not have an effect. Do not use it.
• The property: alternateRowColors displays the rows with alternating background colors (“banded rows”). Do not use it.

sap.m.Column

The following additional properties are available for sap.m.Column:

• The property: width defines the width of the column in all units allowed by HTML, such as em, rem, %, and px.
• The property: styleClass is used if you need to change the visual design of a column. Do not use this, but use the default style instead.
• The property: visible shows or hides the column.
• The property: tooltip does not have an effect. Do not use it.

sap.m.ColumnListItem

The following additional properties are available for sap.m.ColumnListItem:

• The property: selected allows an item to be selected programmatically.
• The property: counter does not have any effect. Do not use it.
• Do not use the property: busy.
• Do not use the property: busyIndicatorDelay.
• The property: visible shows or hides the item.
• The property: tooltip adds a tooltip to a whole row. The tooltip is only shown on mouse interaction. It will not work on tablets or smartphones. Do not use it.

Resources

Want to dive deeper? Follow the links below to find out more about related controls, the SAPUI5 implementation, and the visual design.

Usage

Use the list if:

• You want to display a homogeneous set of basic data.
• You need to sort, group, or filter simple datasets.
• You need to display a single-level hierarchy rather than using a complex tree table to support this simple use case.

Do not use the list if:

• You want to manage complex datasets that need to be extensively sorted, grouped, filtered, or edited. In this case, use a table.
• You work with complex hierarchies. In this case, use a tree.

Responsiveness

The list is like a layout container. You can change its width, but you must also ensure that the items contained in the list adapt whenever the list is resized.

All list item variants available in SAP Fiori already adapt to the respective screen size.

List Item Variants

The list contains various list items. These items can be of various types depending on the use case and on the content they have. SAPUI5 already provides the most common list items in SAP Fiori in the form of controls, although custom list items can also be created if necessary.

Components

Behavior and Interaction

There are several ways to interact with the list and its list items:

List Level

Styles

The list items can have a header when they are used in a content area. It is also technically possible to change the background of the header and of the list itself. Depending on the use case, the lines between the list items and around the list can be shown or hidden.

Guidelines

Resources

As with the list and the responsive table, the grid list displays a set of items. In contrast to both controls, the grid list displays the items not in rows, but in a grid.

The grid list is usually used as an alternative view for a list or table. It is ideal for displaying images, charts, object cards, and other content, which profit from more height (but less width).

Usage

Use the grid list if:

• Your content is “visual” and profits from the rectangular format of the items. This is true for e.g. images, charts, and object cards.
• The focus is on items, not on cells. The grid list shows complete items.
• You want to display a homogeneous set of basic data.
• You need to sort, group, or filter simple data sets.
• As an alternative view for tables or lists, if the content profits from the different format.

Do not use the grid list if:

• Your content is not appropriate for a card-like format. For example, do not use the grid list for displaying a wall of text. Use a table instead.
• The main use case is to select one item from a very small number of items, without viewing additional details. In this case, a select or combo box might be more appropriate.
• Data needs to be structured in a hierarchical manner. In this case, a tree might be more appropriate.
• You need an overview of a large amount of data. In this case, use a chart.
• You just need it for layout reasons. In this case, use a layout container such as the CSSGrid.
• You want to manage complex datasets that need to be extensively sorted, grouped, filtered, or edited. In this case, use a table.

Responsiveness

The responsiveness of the grid list results from the underlying grid. The underlying grid is defined by rows and columns. Columns can have a minimum and maximum or a fixed size. Whenever an additional column fits on the screen, it will be added. If a column does not fit on the screen anymore, it will be removed. Items are re-layouted accordingly.

Optionally, there can be different configurations for the underlying grid based on breakpoints, for example based on the device types.

To define the grid layout and behavior, you can use one of the pre-defined layouts:

• Grid box layout: Adds a variable number of columns depending on the available screen width. Columns have either a fixed width or can “breathe” slightly. All rows have the same height, and all items are the same size.
• Responsive column layout: The number of columns depends on breakpoints (4 columns for size S, 8 for size M, 12 for size L, and 16 for size XL). The width of the columns grows or shrinks with the available screen space until the next breakpoint is reached. The row height of the grid is determined by the height of the highest item in the row. The number of rows and columns taken up by an item can differ.

Alternatively, you can define your own grid. This gives you much greater flexibility to influence both the layout and the (responsive) behavior of the grid.

The underlying grid defines the available space per item. The width can differ pending on the screen width (“breathing”) or be fixed. The height can differ pending on the content of the item or be fixed. “Breathing” items make better use of the available screen space and is therefore recommended. Make sure, that the item adapts to the resulting width / height, for example by

• Re-layouting the item content
• Hiding less important information
• Re-sizing content, such as images or charts.

Items can use one ore more grid cells. Items can also be different sizes (for example, to allow for varying text lengths/wrapping in different items).

Components