It should be possible to specify bug list sort order via the URL

[Sitsofe Wheeler]

Description of the problem:
When linking to bug search from web pages (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia#head-20c0b7106f06055eed889efe3946f560c34a8b1a towards the bottom of the page ) it is useful to have confirmed and in progress bugs first because these are likely to be complete. Incomplete bugs should be last because they are often old and simply need to be closed.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Run the following query:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=restricted+nvidia-glx&orderby=status&search=Search&field.status%3Alist=New&field.status%3Alist=Incomplete&field.status%3Alist=Confirmed&field.status%3Alist=Triaged&field.status%3Alist=In+Progress&field.status%3Alist=Fix+Committed&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

Expected results:
Bugs to be sorted in the following order: Fix Committed, In Progress, Confirmed, New, Incomplete (and then by bug number within those groups).

Actual results:
Bugs are sorted in the following order: New, Incomplete, Confirmed, In Progress, Fix Committed.

How reproducible is this problem?
It is reproducible every time.

Additional information:
This request might be seen as a duplicate of Bug #56845 but it is asking for more.

[Björn Tillenius (bjornt)]

Sorry for the late replay. Are you suggesting changing the order completely, or making is possible to specify which order the status should be sorted?

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

I'm suggesting that the default order should be changed (where things that are closer to be fixed or are confirmed being nearer the top). I'm NOT suggesting the user should have the choice about the order of the columns used for sorting are used in.

[Graham Binns (gmb)]

One problem with this, surely, is that incomplete or new bugs (which may be genuinely incomplete) will end up getting ignored.

I think it would be a better idea to make it possible to specify the sort order and to make it possible to pass this in the URL.

[Aaron Bentley (abentley)]

The "orderby" query parameter, if present, controls order. If not present, it defaults to "-importance".