How to automatically scroll to end of grid view?

Question

When I add items to the end of a grid view I want the user to see what has been added. Here's an example of what I mean:

The user adds items by pressing the + icon. The problem is that after Item 14 there is no feedback to show that any item has been added. How can I automatically scroll to the last item when it is added to the list?

(Bonus points: how can I scroll to the nth item when it is added somewhere in the middle of the list)

Here is an answer for scrolling to the end of a list view, but if I reverse the order the list then it will look strange to sometimes have 'missing' items on the top row.

Here's my code:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(new MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: new ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: new MyHomePage(),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  int _counter = 0;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    List items = [];
    for (int i = 0; i < _counter; i++) {
      items.add(new Text("Item $i"));
    }
    return new Scaffold(
      appBar: new AppBar(title: new Text("Scroll To End Test")),
      body: new GridView.extent(
        primary: true,
        maxCrossAxisExtent: 150.0,
        children: items,
      ),
      floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: () {
          setState(() {
            _counter++;
          });
        },
        tooltip: 'Increment',
        child: new Icon(Icons.add),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Answer 1

Declare a scroll controller and use it to move to the point you desire. Here is an example scrolling to the last element. Notice that the scroll controller is declared explicitly thus you can't issue primary: true

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(new MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: new ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: new MyHomePage(),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  int _counter = 0;

  ScrollController _scrollController;                                 // NEW

  @override                                                           // NEW
  void initState() {                                                  // NEW
    super.initState();                                                // NEW
    _scrollController = new ScrollController(                         // NEW
      initialScrollOffset: 0.0,                                       // NEW
      keepScrollOffset: true,                                         // NEW
    );
  }

  void _toEnd() {                                                     // NEW
    _scrollController.animateTo(                                      // NEW
      _scrollController.position.maxScrollExtent,                     // NEW
      duration: const Duration(milliseconds: 500),                    // NEW
      curve: Curves.ease,                                             // NEW
    );                                                                // NEW
  }                                                                   // NEW

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    List items = [];
    for (int i = 0; i < _counter; i++) {
      items.add(new Text("Item $i"));
    }
    return new Scaffold(
      appBar: new AppBar(
        title: new Text("Scroll To End Test"),
        actions: <Widget>[                                            // NEW
          new IconButton(                                             // NEW
              icon: new Icon(Icons.arrow_downward), onPressed: _toEnd)// NEW
        ],                                                            // NEW
      ),
      body: new GridView.extent(
        //primary: true, // REMOVED
        maxCrossAxisExtent: 150.0,
        children: items,
        controller: _scrollController,                                // NEW
      ),
      floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: () {
          setState(() {
            _counter++;
          });
        },
        tooltip: 'Increment',
        child: new Icon(Icons.add),
      ),
    );
  }
}

About the "bonus point" I am not so skilled with ScrollControllers but as far as i got, the .animateTo( ) method asks as first input for a double, setting there the scrollpoint: in principle, putting the i-th item you want to scroll to

var cursor = i/(# items) * _scrollController.position.maxScrollExtent

adjusting this value depending on how many objects per row your grid has. I know this is just a sketch but I think it can lead you there.