Select new item added to SwiftUI List - ios

Question

Using Xcode 11.0, Beta 5.
I have a List driven from an array of model objects in an observed view model. Each item in the List has a NavigationLink with a destination detail view/view model that accepts the model as an argument.
The user can tap a bar button above the list to add a new item which is added to the view model's array and the List is therefore reloaded with the new item displayed.
The issue I cannot solve is how to select that new item in the list and therefore display the detail view without needing the user to select it manually. (This is an iPad app with split screen view, hence the reason to want to select it)
I've tried using a NavigationLink programatically, but can't seem to get anything to work. I looked at the selection argument for the List but that also requires the list to be in edit mode, so that's no good.
Any suggestions are very welcome!

Answer 1

The following solution uses the selection attribute of NavigationLink. One problem here is that only items currently visible get rendered, so selecting a row further down does nothing.
import SwiftUI
struct Item: Identifiable {
let id = UUID()
var title: String
var content: String
}
struct ItemOverview: View {
let item: Item
var body: some View {
Text(item.title)
}
}
struct ItemDetailsView: View {
let item: Item
var body: some View {
VStack{
Text(item.title).font(.headline)
Divider()
Text(item.content)
Spacer()
}
}
}
func randomString(length: Int) -> String {
let letters = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
return String((0..<length).map{ _ in letters.randomElement()! })
}
struct ListSelectionView: View {
#State var items: [Item] = [
Item(title: "Hello", content: "Content World"),
Item(title: "Hey", content: "Content Du"),
]
#State var selection: UUID? = nil
func createItem() {
let newItem = Item(title: randomString(length: 3), content: randomString(length: 10))
self.selection = newItem.id
self.items.append(newItem)
}
var body: some View {
VStack{
NavigationView{
List(items) { item in
NavigationLink(destination: ItemDetailsView(item: item), tag: item.id, selection: self.$selection, label: {
Text(item.title)
})
}
}
Button(action: {
self.createItem()
}) { Text("Add and select new item") }
Divider()
Text("Current selection2: \(String(selection?.uuidString ?? "not set"))")
}
}
}
A second problem is that changing the $selection makes Modifying state during view update appear.
Third problem is that after manual selection the shading stays on the same item until again changed by hand.
Result
Programmatic selection is not really usable for now if you want to select a link not initialized yet (not visible?).
Further ideas
One might look into tags a little bit more.
Another option could be paging where all items of the current page are visible.
One could also use list selection and show details based on that.