Additional UI framework for full feature table

[nitrosx]

Summary

This issue is to collect the opinions of all the collaborators regarding including and utilizing a second full framework on top Angular to implement specific functionalities.
This issue has been created following the creation of PR #1505, which adds WebIX framework framework to implement a table which offers a better UI/UX, as the one currently implemented in SciCat is very basic and not enterprise level.
The current table is implemented on top of Angular Material table component, which does not offer the following nice-to-have features:

• variable column width
• drag-and-drop column ordering

[nitrosx]

From @sbliven

We talked about this PR in the meeting today. A couple concerns came up.

• Pricing Are all the features we would need available in webix standard (the GPL version)? IMO webix pro licenses are out of the question.
• Client-side filtering. I think users would be very confused that filters are done client side and apply only to the current page of results. I think it needs to be done server-side like the facets, or else it should be omitted from the table.
• Maintenance. It seems like adding webix would increase the complexity of the frontend significantly, and could increase the maintenance burden. I get that this is just a proof of concept, but while the sorting and resizing features shown here would be nice they would hardly be worth it if they make the frontend harder to maintain and develop. Do you see some "killer features" that would have a high impact on the user experience that would come with webix but not available with the current framework?

[nitrosx]

My concerns are:

1. increase in code complexity
2. increase in code management and maintenance
3. steeper learning curve for new contributors
4. efficacy of using visual components coming from multiple framework
5. closed source or licensed solution

I wonder if we can just use a single library that implements a full feature table and focus our effort in to make the user UX consistent across all the frontend.

[nitrosx]

Please, provide your opinion and suggestion for alternative solutions.

[nitrosx]

Possible solution for a full featured table:

• Tabulator

[nitrosx]

Other possible solution:

• AG Grid

[Ingvord]

@nitrosx , thanks for aggregating all of this info in this issue!

Please note that #1505 only shows table, that does not necessary means we have to use only tables though.

My idea is to add a new visual layer on top of Angular to get UI/UX similar to say this

The PR mentioned above is just a proof of the concept of integration between Angular and Webix e.g. data loading. I will try to find resources to build a fully functional demo, at least for the search page (replace also filters form and the search bar, and the header)

[Ingvord]

Also concerning webix license: it is GPLv3, however quote from their readme:

Starting from Webix 2.4, it possible to use a FLOSS Exception to the GPL License. This allows to use Webix in your applications distributed under MIT, BSD and other open source licenses.

So SciCat with its BSD-3 is fully compatible with webix.

Hope this clarifies