Feature Request: Add Support for ListHeaderComponent in RecyclerListView

[Encoded99]

Dear RecyclerListView Team,

First, I want to thank you for creating RecyclerListView and providing developers with a powerful, performance-focused library for handling large datasets in React Native applications. Its virtualization capabilities and flexibility make it an invaluable tool for many use cases.

However, I would like to bring up a significant pain point that many developers, including myself, encounter when using RecyclerListView—the lack of a built-in ListHeaderComponent or equivalent functionality. This omission creates unnecessary hurdles for what should be a common and simple use case: adding a header that scrolls seamlessly with the rest of the list.

While RecyclerListView provides excellent support for footers through renderFooter, there is no direct counterpart for headers. The current workarounds, such as appending a header item to the dataset or creating complex layouts with ScrollView, often lead to issues like:

Dataset Conflicts: Appending a header to the data can break the expected structure and types, causing logic errors or requiring additional code to handle it separately.

Layout Issues: Positioning the header outside RecyclerListView (e.g., absolute positioning or as a sibling) can lead to scrolling problems, especially when the header content is large and requires its own scrolling.

Complexity: These workarounds force developers to write unnecessary boilerplate code and face challenges that wouldn’t exist if there were native support for headers.

Having a built-in ListHeaderComponent, similar to ListFooterComponent, would save developers significant time and effort while adhering to the principles of simplicity and usability. Such a feature would not only align RecyclerListView with familiar APIs like FlatList but also enhance its adoption by making it more intuitive and developer-friendly.

I kindly request the addition of a ListHeaderComponent (or a similar feature) to RecyclerListView. This seemingly small addition would have a substantial impact on improving the developer experience while maintaining the library’s excellent performance benefits.

Thank you for considering this request, and I look forward to seeing how RecyclerListView evolves in the future.