Feature Request: Configurable Enterprise-Style Row Selection for BbDataGrid

[SimonLiebers-Dev]

Summary

BbDataGrid currently supports single- and multi-selection. In multi-selection mode, clicking a row simply toggles its selection state.

For enterprise applications, this behavior is often too limited. It would be useful if BbDataGrid supported configurable row selection behavior similar to desktop applications and file explorers.

Use Case

We are using BbDataGrid in an enterprise platform where users frequently work with large datasets. Standard enterprise selection patterns improve usability and align with user expectations.

Proposed Behavior

Introduce a configurable selection mode that supports the following interactions:

• Regular click

  • Deselect all other rows.
  • Select the clicked row.
  • If the clicked row is already selected, unselect it.

• Shift + Click

  • Select the entire range between the last selected row and the clicked row.

• Ctrl/Cmd + Click

  • Add or remove the clicked row from the current selection without affecting the existing selection.

Proposal

Instead of implementing this as a special-case feature, it would be great if BbDataGrid exposed a configurable selection strategy or selection behavior that applications can choose from.

This would allow consumers to opt into more advanced, enterprise-style selection while keeping the current behavior as the default if desired.

Such an approach would make the component more flexible and suitable for a wider range of use cases without introducing breaking changes.

[mathewtaylor]

Thanks — this is a well-specified request, and the behaviour you're describing is the right one. Plain click replacing the selection, Shift+click extending a range and Ctrl/Cmd+click toggling a single row is what people have learned from every file explorer and spreadsheet they use, and the current always-toggle behaviour in multi-select mode does read as unfinished next to that.

One deliberate difference from the proposal, and I want to be upfront about the reasoning rather than quietly building something narrower than you asked for.

You suggested a configurable selection strategy that applications can plug into. I'd rather ship this as a small enum parameter — something along the lines of SelectionBehavior with Toggle as the default (exactly today's behaviour, so nothing breaks) and a Replace mode implementing the click/Shift+click/Ctrl+click semantics above.

The reason is that a pluggable strategy is a public extension point, and public extension points on BbDataGrid are close to permanent — once someone's application implements one, its shape constrains every future change to selection, hit-testing and keyboard navigation. There are two other pieces of work queued against this component (#412 nested grouping, and a likely change to how columns resolve sort and filter values), and an extension point in the middle of that area would make both harder to land.

An enum gets you the same behaviour with a fraction of the surface, and it stays open to becoming something more pluggable later if a genuine second use case turns up — whereas the reverse is not true.

If you have a concrete case where you'd need to define your own selection semantics rather than pick from the ones above, say so, because that would change the calculus and I'd want to know before building.

[SimonLiebers-Dev]

@mathewtaylor
Your proposal with a small enum parameter sounds good.
I just thought maybe other users may have other requirements for list selection behavior.
But you are right. This is the behavior everyone expects and a small enum should be enough.

Thanks for considering this feature.
Im sure this will give a huge benefit to applications using Blazor Blueprint.

[mathewtaylor]

Scheduled as part of a DataGrid sweep covering #463, #456, #412, #497 and #498. Landing in the first wave alongside #463 — both are small, and both fix things that currently read as bugs rather than absent features.

Design is as agreed above: a DataGridSelectionBehavior enum with Toggle (today's behaviour, unchanged default) and Replace.

Two details worth recording now, because they are where this usually goes wrong:

• Shift+click extends from the anchor, not the last selected row. Those differ the moment a Ctrl+click happens. This needs an explicit anchor field reset on plain click; getting it wrong makes the feature feel subtly broken rather than obviously broken.
• Checkbox clicks keep Toggle semantics even under Replace. Otherwise BbDataGridSelectColumn becomes unusable, since every checkbox click would clear the others.

[mathewtaylor]

Landed in #499 (merged to develop).

[mathewtaylor]

Released in BlazorBlueprint.Components 3.16.0, live on NuGet now.

SelectionBehavior="DataGridSelectionBehavior.Replace" gives you plain click, Shift+Click for a range, and Ctrl/Cmd+Click to add or remove one row. Toggle is still the default, so nothing changes unless you opt in.

dotnet add package BlazorBlueprint.Components --version 3.16.0

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