Change Kibana table column width using percents

[alytkowski]

Describe the feature:
Change the code in a way, that resizing(customizing) the Kibana table columns(In Discover) is not performed statically, but by using percentage.
Describe a specific use case for the feature:
This would ensure that the columns autofit to the display resolution, but also maintain the custom column width.
Currently, to ensure that the column width autofit, you can't customize it, and as a result all of the columns width are the same - sometimes you'd want to have a field with larger column width and some other smaller - this has been working fine in the 8.1.1 version.

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-data-discovery (Team:DataDiscovery)

[jughosta]

@alytkowski Thanks for your suggestion!
Linking to the original discussion https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-table-resizing-of-columns/307633

[jughosta]

@constancecchen Would it possible to add support for it in EuiDataGrid?

[cee-chen]

At first glance, my best guess is that it would be a moderate technical lift to implement, so not something we could quickly add. Feel free to open an issue in the EUI repo for it however!

I'll also note that I'm not the definitive owner of EuiDataGrid, so don't take my word as 100% truth - @chandlerprall is + owner of the datagrid roadmap/priorities, so def feel free to ping him as well for feature & enhancement requests!

[chandlerprall]

This request is partially captured in elastic/eui#4019, specifically elastic/eui#4019 (comment). Unfortunately the difficulty isn't as much technical, but finding functional, discoverable, and accessible user interactions.

[cee-chen]

@chandlerprall I'm not totally sure that's the same feature request - it sounds like the request here is to be able to set columns.someColumn.initialWidth = "20%" for example, instead of initialWidth being limited to a static pixel width of, e.g., 300.

[chandlerprall]

Re-reading the thread & comment I linked to, it does not cover this case. We've had the conversation before but apparently not in github.

it sounds like the request here is to be able to set columns.someColumn.initialWidth = "20%" for example

Not only the initial width but the user's resize actions too,

resizing(customizing) the Kibana table columns

We have this set up in EuiResizableContainer, where percentages are tracked and updating one affects its neighbor(s).

At a technical level, adding this to the data grid would mean expanding the existing pixel-based widths to accept percentages, and similarly the callbacks would need to respond with a matching unit.

I wonder if we could avoid user experience changes by just responding based on the column width type. Mixed types may be awkward when the dimensions change, but solvable if the app always uses percentages.

[cee-chen]

Ahh I definitely missed the user resize context, apologies. ++ to everything you're saying!

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/eui-design (EUI)

[kertal]

Closing this because it's not planned to be resolved in the foreseeable future. It will be tracked in our Icebox and will be re-opened if our priorities change. Feel free to re-open if you think it should be melted sooner.