Fix #13402: Make sidebar width proportional to window size and persist across sessions #13405

SahilBijlani · 2025-06-28T20:12:23Z

Summary

This PR fixes the issue where the sidebar (SidePane) did not retain its width across application restarts. Previously, even if users resized the sidebar manually, the width would reset on every launch. This change makes the sidebar width proportional to the window size and persists the divider position using preferences.

Closes #13402

Changes Made

Modified JabRefFrame to store the sidebar divider position as a proportional value (0.0–1.0) instead of absolute pixels.
Persisted the divider position in GuiPreferences when the sidebar is visible.
Restored the divider position when the sidebar is shown again and when JabRef is restarted.
Handled edge cases (like window width being 0, NaN, or sidebar being hidden) to avoid invalid layout behavior.

Steps to test

Launch JabRef.
Open the Groups pane or any other sidebar component.
Resize the sidebar to your preferred width.
Close JabRef and reopen it.
The sidebar should open at the same proportional width as before.
Try resizing the entire window — sidebar width should still stay proportional.

Mandatory checks

I own the copyright of the code submitted and I license it under the MIT license
Change in CHANGELOG.md described in a way that is understandable for the average user (if change is visible to the user)
Tests created for changes (not applicable; this is a GUI layout change that is hard to unit test)
Manually tested changed features in running JabRef (always required)
Screenshots added in PR description (if change is visible to the user)
Checked developer's documentation: Is the information available and up to date? If not, I outlined it in this pull request.
Checked documentation: No update needed; behavior is expected and unchanged in functionality.

…persist across sessions

SahilBijlani · 2025-06-28T20:32:12Z

@koppor @Siedlerchr Could you please review this PR? It fixes #13402 by persisting the sidebar width proportionally and across sessions. All checks have passed. Thank you!

SahilBijlani · 2025-06-28T20:58:48Z

Hi @koppor @Siedlerchr 👋

All checks have passed ✅ and I’ve addressed all feedback from trag-bot.
This PR fixes #13402 by persisting the sidebar width proportionally across sessions.

Could you please review and approve it when you get a chance?
Thank you so much! 🙏

SahilBijlani · 2025-06-28T21:01:00Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/frame/JabRefFrame.java

+
+        horizontalSplit.setDividerPositions(savedProportion);
+
+        // Subscribe to save user-adjusted sidebar position


Siedlerchr · 2025-06-28T21:29:45Z

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ Note that this project **does not** adhere to [Semantic Versioning](https://semv

 ## [Unreleased]

+- Sidebar width now persists across sessions and resizes proportionally to window width [#13402](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/13402)


move to the changed section

trag-bot · 2025-06-28T21:45:42Z

@trag-bot didn't find any issues in the code! ✅✨

koppor · 2025-06-29T08:07:46Z

Contributor uses AI-generated responses for communication - #13402 (comment)

If there is anything strange in this PR, it is OK to close it.

SahilBijlani · 2025-06-29T08:32:22Z

Appreciate your reply!! But i want to clarify that all the decisions are made by me (using an ai tool isn’t bad as all other developers do! My goal was to improve JabRef..just that Thank you again for your consideration!

…

On Sun, 29 Jun 2025 at 1:38 PM, Oliver Kopp ***@***.***> wrote: *koppor* left a comment (JabRef/jabref#13405) <#13405 (comment)> Contributor uses AI-generated responses for communication - #13402 (comment) <#13402 (comment)> If there is anything strange in this PR, it is OK to close it. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13405 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A3UVT6ZQ7U4HTJXHZMAWCOT3F6NGPAVCNFSM6AAAAACALJHKNKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTAMJWGM4TKOJXGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

koppor · 2025-06-29T09:58:03Z

Appreciate your reply!! But i want to clarify that all the decisions are
made by me (using an ai tool isn’t bad as all other developers do!

Yes. The comments that were posted using your account made the impression that an AI spoke for you.

See https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#notes-on-ai-usage

My goal was to improve JabRef..just that

Nice.

My goal is to have a nice free time project with people makeing the impression they are making proper use of our time.

Its Sunday here and I am on the mobile phone only. Thus, no review the next hours.

SahilBijlani · 2025-06-30T13:29:07Z

Hello! i will glad knowing what's the status of the issue that i was assigned? Thank you

…

On Sun, 29 Jun 2025 at 15:28, Oliver Kopp ***@***.***> wrote: *koppor* left a comment (JabRef/jabref#13405) <#13405 (comment)> Appreciate your reply!! But i want to clarify that all the decisions are made by me (using an ai tool isn’t bad as all other developers do! Yes. The comments that were posted using your account made the impression that an AI spoke for you. See https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#notes-on-ai-usage My goal was to improve JabRef..just that Nice. My goal is to have a nice free time project with people makeing the impression they are making proper use of our time. Its Sunday here and I am on the mobile phone only. Thus, no review the next hours. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13405 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A3UVT67UKJCPQV3SXTBU6ED3F62EFAVCNFSM6AAAAACALJHKNKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTAMJWGUYDSNRRHA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

subhramit · 2025-06-30T19:07:22Z

Hello! i will glad knowing what's the status of the issue that i was assigned? Thank you

Hi, could you take the effort of opening GitHub and checking yourself? You have both the issue link and the PR link, right?
Some background: All the maintainers of the project have day jobs here, and they look after this project out of passion in their free time. We appreciate if our time is not spent in unnecessary things.
Your contribution is truly appreciated, but please enlighten yourself with the bare minimum courtesy and effort that is expected from you with regards to communication and how to check things out, and maintain a thread of conversation on the website.
Maybe check out CONTRIBUTING.md or at least open and read how conversations happen in a few existing PRs.

But i want to clarify that all the decisions are made by me (using an ai tool isn’t bad as all other developers do! My goal was to improve JabRef..just that

Please understand that some of the maintainers here are very senior developers with many years of experience. They all understand and use AI where it is useful, but they are able to do that because they have the knowledge to identify where it is not useful. To get there, it takes a long road of thinking independently and evaluating decisions. The issue arises when one is not able to evaluate the outcome of AI, and also doesn't understand how dehumanizing it is to communicate using that. In your previous PR, you understood nothing that was written in the mandatory checks section and ticked off everything, yet you claim that decisions were made by you.

Usually we close PRs for the reasons mentioned, but the point behind pointing all this out is so that you have another chance and we can have more fruitful exchanges in future, provided you are willing to understand things.

Thanks.

koppor

Too many listeners generated. There must be another solution where listeners are instantiated on startup, not on each change of something.

koppor · 2025-07-01T07:16:26Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/frame/JabRefFrame.java

@@ -83,8 +83,9 @@ public class JabRefFrame extends BorderPane implements LibraryTabContainer, UiMe
    private enum PanelMode { MAIN_TABLE, MAIN_TABLE_AND_ENTRY_EDITOR }

    public static final String FRAME_TITLE = "JabRef";
-
+    


Why more spaces?

koppor · 2025-07-01T07:17:02Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/frame/JabRefFrame.java

+        if (Double.isNaN(savedProportion) || savedProportion <= 0 || savedProportion >= 1) {
+            savedProportion = DEFAULT_SIDEBAR_DIVIDER_POSITION;
+        }
+            horizontalSplit.setDividerPositions(savedProportion);


Indent is off

koppor · 2025-07-01T07:17:56Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/frame/JabRefFrame.java

        }
-    }


?

strange indent

koppor · 2025-07-01T07:18:39Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/frame/JabRefFrame.java

@@ -447,6 +463,14 @@ private void initBindings() {
        EasyBind.subscribe(preferences.getWorkspacePreferences().hideTabBarProperty(), _ -> updateTabBarVisible());
    }

+    private void initSidebarResizeListener() {
+        mainStage.widthProperty().addListener((obs, oldVal, newVal) -> {


Why no _ used here?

koppor · 2025-07-01T07:20:31Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/frame/JabRefFrame.java

+    private void initSidebarResizeListener() {
+        mainStage.widthProperty().addListener((obs, oldVal, newVal) -> {
+            if (!sidePane.getChildren().isEmpty()) {
+                updateHorizontalDividerPosition();


Here, inside, always a new listener is created. This will let the memory grow and grow and grow and grow and grow.

SahilBijlani added 2 commits June 29, 2025 01:23

Fix JabRef#13402: Make sidebar width proportional to window size and …

c3c5654

…persist across sessions

Update CHANGELOG.md to describe sidebar fix

7de6fd6

SahilBijlani added 3 commits June 29, 2025 02:04

Update CHANGELOG.md to describe sidebar fix

4054604

Update CHANGELOG.md to describe sidebar fix

e93f078

Removed extra blank lines between the methods

5d621bb

Removed unnecessary comments from the code

a136181

SahilBijlani commented Jun 28, 2025

View reviewed changes

SahilBijlani added 3 commits June 29, 2025 02:36

Extract default sidebar divider position into constant

50bb101

Moved the constant to the start of the file!

df94a74

Moved the constant to the right position!

8bfd8ad

Siedlerchr reviewed Jun 28, 2025

View reviewed changes

SahilBijlani added 2 commits June 29, 2025 03:03

Add sidebar persistence change to 'Changed' section of changelog

0f501ad

removed extra blank lines

a14e9d7

SahilBijlani mentioned this pull request Jun 29, 2025

adapt sidebar (groups, etc) proportionally relative to window size #13402

Open

koppor requested changes Jul 1, 2025

View reviewed changes


		horizontalSplit.setDividerPositions(savedProportion);

		// Subscribe to save user-adjusted sidebar position

		@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ Note that this project does not adhere to [Semantic Versioning](https://semv

		## [Unreleased]

		- Sidebar width now persists across sessions and resizes proportionally to window width [#13402](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/13402)

		@@ -83,8 +83,9 @@ public class JabRefFrame extends BorderPane implements LibraryTabContainer, UiMe
		private enum PanelMode { MAIN_TABLE, MAIN_TABLE_AND_ENTRY_EDITOR }

		public static final String FRAME_TITLE = "JabRef";

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Fix #13402: Make sidebar width proportional to window size and persist across sessions #13405

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Fix #13402: Make sidebar width proportional to window size and persist across sessions #13405

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SahilBijlani commented Jun 28, 2025

Summary

Changes Made

Steps to test

Mandatory checks

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subhramit commented Jun 30, 2025 •

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