Bug 4.2 beta 3: Inconsistent sort by/group by in library

Mark Barnes

This has been a long-standing bug, but the introduction of the Last Updated column reminded me.

The bug is that there is no consistency as to whether sorting on a particular column will invoke a 'Group By' view.

It seems to me that the logic ought to be that were data is likely to be unique, then group by shouldn't be used (title is the obvious example), but where data is often likely to be common between resources, then it should be (author or publisher).

However that logic isn't applied to Rating, Tags, or Last Updated, which should all Group, to my way of thinking. A case could also be made for publication date, and electronic publication date.

An additional bug is that sorting by tags has no effect at all.

Melissa Snyder

Mark Barnes said:

This has been a long-standing bug, but the introduction of the Last Updated column reminded me.

The bug is that there is no consistency as to whether sorting on a particular column will invoke a 'Group By' view.

It seems to me that the logic ought to be that were data is likely to be unique, then group by shouldn't be used (title is the obvious example), but where data is often likely to be common between resources, then it should be (author or publisher).

However that logic isn't applied to Rating, Tags, or Last Updated, which should all Group, to my way of thinking. A case could also be made for publication date, and electronic publication date.

There is an outstanding case on this issue of grouped and sorted views in Library. I've added a link to this thread to the case.

Mark Barnes said:

An additional bug is that sorting by tags has no effect at all.

The Tags column is not in use as yet (beside displaying the same data as My Tags), so sorting by that column will default to sorting by Title. However, there has been a request to sort by the data that is currently in the column (http://community.logos.com/forums/t/11741.aspx). I've also added a link to your thread to that case.

Rosie Perera

Mark Barnes said:

This has been a long-standing bug, but the introduction of the Last Updated column reminded me.

The bug is that there is no consistency as to whether sorting on a particular column will invoke a 'Group By' view.

It seems to me that the logic ought to be that were data is likely to be unique, then group by shouldn't be used (title is the obvious example), but where data is often likely to be common between resources, then it should be (author or publisher).

However that logic isn't applied to Rating, Tags, or Last Updated, which should all Group, to my way of thinking. A case could also be made for publication date, and electronic publication date.

I think it would be useful to have "Group" be a separate option that could be turned on/of independently of sorting, just like in Outlook email. You can sort your emails by date or subject or author for example, in which case you can still scan through all the emails without having to click to expand each grouping. Alternatively, you can group by the sort field, which lets you click to expand/collapse the heading of each group. In Logos this would be very useful. I often like to group by tag or publisher but would still be able to see the titles without having to expand each group.

Perhaps a solution to my frustration would be to introduce Expand All / Collapse All options on a right click menu if you right-click on the heading of a group.