Add a refresh function to the popupMenu object

[marcellobarile]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

With https://github.com/camunda/web-modeler/issues/6066 we are adding to the web-modeler the capability to import element templates from the marketplace;
once this is done via a pop-over dialog, the user should go back to the diagram following a non-interrupting UX; the just imported element templates should be listed in the element templates list while it's opened.

Describe the solution you'd like

We are hacking the popupMenu in the web-modeler by programmatically closing and re-opening it.
This solves the issue because it implicitly forces a new rendering.

This could be avoided if the popupMenu was exposing a refresh method that computes and renders the entities list from scratch.

In the alternative, the list in the UI could be internally refreshed as soon as new templates are set via the elementTemplatesLoader.

Additional context

First, we update the list of templates by calling elementTemplatesLoader.setTemplates as soon as we have imported new element templates.

Secondly, this is the hacky solution implemented in the web-modeler to "propagate" the change also to the UI (without having to go away from the diagram, or unselecting and reselecting the element and other actions that might create friction during the modelling):

try {
    if (popupMenu.isOpen()) {
       const { target, position, options, className: providerId } = popupMenu._current;
          
       popupMenu.close();
       popupMenu.open(target, providerId, position, options);
    }
} catch (err) {
    console.log(err);
}

[barmac]

If I understand you correctly, the required feature is to be able to reload the content of the popup menu without reopening.
Given a popup menu is open, when an external system triggers refresh, the popup menu should retrieve the entries again and re-render its contents. Is that correct?

Still, I can imagine that even such expansion of the API may appear to be too limited soon. If a user requests additional entries which are loaded asynchronously, they may expect some kind of loader/spinner for which there is no place in the current, synchronous API. Perhaps we need to have a popup menu which could receive entries asynchronously? Or a way to hook up into what component is displayed?

[marcellobarile]

@barmac

Is that correct

Correct :)

I can imagine that even such expansion of the API may appear to be too small soon. If a user requests additional entries which are loaded asynchronously, they may expect some kind of loader/spinner for which there is no place in the current, synchronous API

My gut feeling is that this depends on the direction that we want to take in the future; right now the async business logic to select / fetch / import new templates is handled by different components of the web-modeler, meaning that when we set new templates in the popupMenu we already have everything in place.

[nikku]

To me this sounds like a reasonable request. We already use such functionality internally.

[nikku]

@marcellobarile Maybe you can take inspiration from the built-in refresh functionality.

That could shorten the hack you mentioned.

[CatalinaMoisuc]

There is no capacity in this iteration, we leave it in ready to be prioritized in the next iteration.

[barmac]

There is no capacity in this iteration, we leave it in ready to be prioritized in the next iteration.

[philippfromme]

@barmac You are assigned to this issue. Are you planning to work on it anytime soon?

[philippfromme]

@barmac As discussed, I will take over this issue.

[philippfromme]

Closed by #860.