Inertia.js Infinite Scroll: Why Page 2 Replaced Existing Posts Instead of Appending Them
Infinite Scroll in ICanUp initially looked correct. The first page of Posts loaded, I scrolled down, the request for page=2 completed, and the server returned the next records. Then something unexpected happened: the Posts from page 1 disappeared, and only the records from page 2 remained. The interesting part was that pagination itself worked. The data arrived. The problem was how the next page…
The issue with Infinite Scroll in ICanUp was that when the second page loaded, it replaced the existing posts instead of appending them. While the server returned new posts, the previous list disappeared. This behavior deviated from traditional pagination, where page 2 would show its own records without affecting the previous page.
Infinite Scroll requires a different contract for pagination. The first page loads the initial set of posts, but subsequent pages should extend the existing list rather than replace it. The problem lies in the application's handling of the local state, not the server's response.
The solution is to treat page 1 differently from later pages. For page 1, the local list is replaced with the new data. For pages 2 and beyond, the new data should be appended to the existing list. This distinction ensures that the user sees a continuous stream of posts as they scroll.
To implement this, the application needs to keep track of pagination metadata such as the current page, last page, and whether more pages exist. This metadata helps determine whether to replace or append the list based on the page number and context changes like category, filter, or locale.
By updating the local state to append new data to the existing list, Infinite Scroll can function correctly without losing the accumulated results or introducing duplicate posts. This approach aligns the application's behavior with the expected user experience for Infinite Scroll scenarios.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
