# Living table

A React component in [Beamline](https://beamline.io/)'s [Data & tables](https://beamline.io/components/data) category. Live demo: https://beamline.io/components/living-table

A table that shows as much as fits on both axes: width decides which columns show (the rest ride in the name line, moving there rather than vanishing) and zoom decides how much each record shows — every record as one tile with a lens and an honest legend, a row, or a tall row with its history — anchored on the record under the pointer.

## Use it for

- The list a team lives in all day ([invoices](https://beamline.io/components/invoices), deals, patients, work orders, runs) where people need both the rows and the whole list at once to find the ones in trouble.
- The host gives the columns with their room, priority and fold kind, and the overview's bands as tests; the part never invents a value.

## Not for

- Spreadsheet-like editing, virtual scrolling over a server source, column resizing → [data-grid](https://beamline.io/components/data-grid).
- A short list with a few columns that always fit → table.

## Anatomy

- toolbar: the list's name, its count and sort, the zoom hint and the level control (Overview · Rows · Detail)
- rows: a sticky header with sort buttons, rows whose first cell is the name with folded values riding under it, a sticky footer with each aggregate and its scope
- detail: each row grown with the columns that left (label and value) and the host's detail
- overview: every record as a tile in sort order, sized to fit; the lens over the hovered or focused tile; the legend with the colour's meaning, each band's count as a spotlight toggle, not-loaded count

## States

- overview
- rows
- detail
- loading (the level's shape, hatched)
- empty
- partial (n loaded of m: footer and legend say so, the rest outlined)
- changed (a record flashes once; its tile cross-fades)

## Keyboard

- + and − (or the level control) zoom, anchored on the focused record, and focus stays on it; Ctrl/⌘ with +, − or the wheel is always the browser's page zoom
- In the overview: arrows move between tiles (the lens follows), Home/End to the row's ends, Ctrl+Home/End to the first and last; Enter or Space zooms into Rows on that record and focuses it
- In rows: Tab reaches one row (the last one focused); ↑/↓, Home and End move between rows; the headers' sort buttons sort

## Motion

A fold that changes moves the values between their cell and the name line (only a fold change travels; a resize that crosses no step places). Zooming keeps the anchor record in place: into the overview its tile lands where its row was, out of it the row grows from its tile, and the others fade in by distance. A changed record flashes once; its tile cross-fades. Reduced motion places at once and still keeps the anchor.

## Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `label` (required) | `string` | — | The list's name: "Invoices". |
| `rows` (required) | `T[]` | — |  |
| `getRowId` (required) | `(row: T) => string` | — |  |
| `columns` (required) | `LivingColumn<T>[]` | — | The first column is the name. |
| `overview` (required) | `LivingOverview<T>` | — |  |
| `matching` | `number` | — | How many records match when only some are loaded (`rows` are the loaded ones): the footer and the legend say so, and the overview outlines the rest. |
| `noun` | `{ one: string; other: string; }` | — | The record's noun for the counts, by number: `{ one: "invoice", other: "invoices" }`. |
| `detail` | `((row: T) => ReactNode)` | — | What a row adds at Detail under the columns that left: its history, its last note. |
| `level` | `LivingLevel` | — |  |
| `defaultLevel` | `LivingLevel` | — |  |
| `onLevelChange` | `((level: LivingLevel) => void)` | — |  |
| `sort` | `LivingSort` | — |  |
| `defaultSort` | `LivingSort` | — |  |
| `onSortChange` | `((sort: LivingSort) => void)` | — |  |
| `loading` | `boolean` | — |  |
| `height` | `number` | — | The table's height in pixels; the overview sizes its tiles so every record fits in it. Default 520. |
| `className` | `string` | — | Classes on the documented visual root; no override by default. |
| `classNames` | `Partial<Record<"root" \| "header" \| "legend" \| "body" \| "footer" \| "cell" \| "row" \| "too…` | — | Classes for the named visual parts; no overrides by default. |
| `style` | `CSSProperties` | — | Inline styles on the documented visual root; no overrides by default. |
| `ref` | `Ref<HTMLDivElement>` | — | Receives the documented native target or imperative handle; omitted by default. |
| `defaultLens` | `string` | — | A record read through the overview's lens as it opens, before anyone points (its row id): the lens shows it over its tile without taking focus; pointing anywhere moves it. |

## Built from

- [Label](https://beamline.io/components/label.md)
- [Segmented control](https://beamline.io/components/segmented-control.md)
- [Select](https://beamline.io/components/select.md)
- [Spinner](https://beamline.io/components/spinner.md)
- [Text morph](https://beamline.io/components/text-morph.md)
- [Tooltip](https://beamline.io/components/tooltip.md)

## Dependencies

`lucide-react`

## Import

```tsx
import { LivingTable } from "@beamline/living-table";
```

## Get it

Living table is part of Beamline UI. Install the parts you need in your React app as compiled packages or editable source. [Get Beamline](https://beamline.io/checkout?pack=complete) · [Connect your agent](https://beamline.io/connect)

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Part of [Beamline UI: polished, editable React components and complete screens for custom applications](https://beamline.io/). [Build your own style from any look; tokens, fonts, radii, motion; not only colours](https://beamline.io/docs/customize).
