Workaround for 'show-delete' in <ion-list> deprecation

Solution

I am developing a mobile app using ionic 2 with Angular 2.

I have an ion-list filled ion-items. I want those ion-item to have the ability to be deleted if needed as presented here on the ionic website.

However, a lot have changed in ionic 2 since the first version and the above style of one button opening all the ion-item at one is not possible anymore since the show-delete and show-reorder are no longer supported. The only option available is to have ion-item-sliding as ion-item, which gives us the ability to slide each item one at a time in order to reveal the delete button.

That is not what I wanted. I wanted one button that opens all ion-item at the same time.

After spending some time on that, I came up with a working solution and managed to achieve the desired outcome using ionic 2, and I am going to share it with you.

Here is my solution:

In the .html file:

<ion-header>
  <ion-navbar>
    <ion-buttons start (click)="manageSlide()">
      <button>
        <ion-icon name="ios-remove"></ion-icon>
      </button>
    </ion-buttons>
    <ion-title>PageName</ion-title>
  </ion-navbar>
</ion-header>

and for the list:

<ion-list #list1>
  <ion-item-sliding #slidingItem *ngFor="let contact of contacts | sortOrder">
    <button #item ion-item>
      <p>{{ item.details }}</p>
      <ion-icon id="listIcon" name="arrow-forward" item-right></ion-icon>
    </button>
    <ion-item-options side="left">
      <button danger (click)="doConfirm(contact, slidingItem)">
        <ion-icon name="ios-remove-circle-outline"></ion-icon>
      Remove
      </button>
    </ion-item-options>
  </ion-item-sliding>
</ion-list>

In the .ts file, first do your imports:

import { ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import { Item } from 'ionic-angular';
import { ItemSliding, List } from 'ionic-angular';

then refer to the html element by declaring a ViewChild:

@ViewChild(List) list: List;

Finally, add your classes to handle the work:

public manageSlide() {

    //loop through the list by the number retreived of the number of ion-item-sliding in the list
    for (let i = 0; i < this.list.getElementRef().nativeElement.children.length; i++) {

        // retreive the current ion-item-sliding
        let itemSlide = this.list.getElementRef().nativeElement.children[i].$ionComponent;

        // retreive the button to slide within the ion-item-sliding
        let item = itemSlide.item;

        // retreive the icon
        let ic = item._elementRef.nativeElement.children[0].children[1];

        if (this.deleteOpened) {
            this.closeSlide(itemSlide);
        } else {
            this.openSlide(itemSlide, item, ic);
        } 
    }

    if (this.deleteOpened) {
        this.deleteOpened = false;
    } else {
        this.deleteOpened = true;
    } 
}

Then the opening class:

private openSlide(itemSlide: ItemSliding, item: Item, inIcon) {
  itemSlide.setCssClass("active-sliding", true);
  itemSlide.setCssClass("active-slide", true);
  itemSlide.setCssClass("active-options-left", true);
  item.setCssStyle("transform", "translate3d(72px, 0px, 0px)")
}

And the closing class:

private closeSlide(itemSlide: ItemSliding) {
  itemSlide.close();
  itemSlide.setCssClass("active-sliding", false);
  itemSlide.setCssClass("active-slide", false);
  itemSlide.setCssClass("active-options-left", false);

}

I hope it will help some you out there.

Enjoy and good coding…