When a TableView's itemsProperty is bound to a data source, sorting will not work:
- Clicking a column header causes the TableView to re-sort.
- Sorting changes the collection that the tableView is bound to (I am not sure if this is okay or not, at least it happens).
- This triggers the invalidated()-Method of the items-Property, which in turn clears out the sortOrder.
- So clicking a column header to change the sort order does not have any effect.

This issue does not happen if:
- The TableView is not bound to an external property, but filled directly.
- Or if the collection it is bound to is empty.

This used to be different in earlier Versions of JavaFX 8. I think this issue is caused by the fix for https://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-35763
Another cause for this issue might be that sorting a TableView that is bound (not bidirectionally!) changes the collection that it is bound to. I don't know what the intended behaviour is in that case.

I consider this critical - it should be possible to sort bound TableViews.


Application to reproduce:

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleListProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
import javafx.collections.FXCollections;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.TableColumn;
import javafx.scene.control.TableView;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class SortBoundTableView extends Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
        TableView<String> tableView = new TableView<String>();
        
        TableColumn<String, String> tableColumn = new TableColumn<String, String>();
        tableColumn.setCellValueFactory((data) -> { return new SimpleStringProperty(data.getValue()); });
        tableColumn.setText("Test");
        tableView.getColumns().add(tableColumn);
        
        SimpleListProperty<String> data = new SimpleListProperty<>(FXCollections.observableArrayList());
        tableView.itemsProperty().bind(data);
        
        // Note: Commenting this line out will make it "work".
        data.addAll("Element 1", "Element 2");
        
        primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(tableView));
        primaryStage.show();
    }

}


Probably Off-Topic: When using .bindBidirectionally() instead of .bind(), something (else?) goes terribly wrong and I get an exception - actually two different exceptions depending on whether the TableView is empty or not. However, this is not my primary concern.