Widgets API is called when loading a dashboard

[arikfr]

Issue Summary

On some dashboards it happens more often than other, but I noticed that in some cases a POST request is made to some of the widgets on a dashboard when loading it.

Here's an example: https://redash-preview.netlify.com/dashboard/now-param

Technical details:

• Redash Version: v9
• Browser/OS: Chrome

[gabrieldutra]

Those POST requests come from the DashboardGrid onLayoutChange, I think the idea is to save widgets position after they "flow". One issue is that this is currently happening in view and in edit mode, we can change that and then those requests would only happen in edit mode.

[arikfr]

But why they happen on every load? Shouldn't it happen once, get updated, and then not happen again until something changes with the layout?

[gabrieldutra]

You have a point, the function that seems to be triggering changes in the layout is this one:

redash/client/app/services/dashboard.js

Lines 36 to 78 in 80878ab

	function prepareWidgetsForDashboard(widgets) {
	// Default height for auto-height widgets.
	// Compute biggest widget size and choose between it and some magic number.
	// This value should be big enough so auto-height widgets will not overlap other ones.
	const defaultWidgetSizeY =
	Math.max(
	_
	.chain(widgets)
	.map(w => w.options.position.sizeY)
	.max()
	.value(),
	20,
	) + 5;
	// Fix layout:
	// 1. sort and group widgets by row
	// 2. update position of widgets in each row - place it right below
	// biggest widget from previous row
	_.chain(widgets)
	.sortBy(widget => widget.options.position.row)
	.groupBy(widget => widget.options.position.row)
	.reduce((row, widgetsAtRow) => {
	let height = 1;
	_.each(widgetsAtRow, (widget) => {
	height = Math.max(
	height,
	widget.options.position.autoHeight ? defaultWidgetSizeY : widget.options.position.sizeY,
	);
	widget.options.position.row = row;
	if (widget.options.position.sizeY < 1) {
	widget.options.position.sizeY = defaultWidgetSizeY;
	}
	});
	return row + height;
	}, 0)
	.value();
	// Sort widgets by updated column and row value
	widgets = _.sortBy(widgets, widget => widget.options.position.col);
	widgets = _.sortBy(widgets, widget => widget.options.position.row);
	return widgets;
	}

I'll investigate this further, but so far it seems to be updating the row for widgets that are not in the first row.

[arikfr]

You have a point, the function that seems to be triggering changes in the layout is this one:

Maybe we should remove this functionality, because layout might change often when auto-height is used and there is no harm in /not/ preserving it.

[gabrieldutra]

Removed it in #4228, there indeed seems to be no harm in removing it and those POST requests stopped.