Default task listing makes maintainers' and bug squads' life difficult

[Brad Bollenbach]

The default sort order (and it's not configurable) for the bugtask listing is simply bug ID, descending.

I feel that the default sort order should be something like severity (highest to lowest), then priority (highest to lowest.)

I think it would probably be useful if:

 * each column in the search listing were click...

This bug report included several suggestions about Malone search results. They are now in separate bug reports so that their status can be tracked properly using Malone:
* making the search sort order configurable and persistent (now bug 880)
* increasing the number of results shown per page (already covered by bug 499)
* ensuring table headers are always visible while the table is visible (now bug 883)
* putting the insertion point in the search text/bug id box by default (rejected, but report a separate bug if you disagree)
* putting the advanced search form on a separate page from the search results (now bug 881)
* changing the column ordering somehow (report a new bug if you have a specific suggestion)
* making the title wrap (already implemented)
* not ellipsizing the bug title (now bug 882)
* not saying "Search Again" when you haven't searched for anything yet (now bug 885)
* making the Advanced/Simple search toggle a link rather than a button (now bug 884).

[Brad Bollenbach (bradb)]

The MOTU response to these suggestions was extremely positive:

< Burgundavia> bradb, that makes all the little annoyances that I can think of go away
...
< Burgundavia> bradb, by little annoyances, I meant each little thing is very annoying, and as a whole, yes, they do make bug tracking almost impossible
...
< thom> seems reasonable; if you go for the large number of bugs per page, make sure you repeat the headings at reasonable intervals so people can find out what the columns are
...

mpt, do you think these suggestions are sound from a usability point of view?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

One bug per bug report, please! :-) Changing the default ordering is separate from the making the columns clickable, which is separate from increasing the default number of bugs shown, which is (effectively) bug 499. All good ideas; please report separate bugs for all except one of them, and change the description for this bug to match that one.

Auto-focusing the search field sounds like a good idea right now, but as soon as bug 499 was fixed you'd be hating it because it would make both scrolling and type-ahead find more difficult.

[Björn Tillenius (bjornt)]

Another thing is that when you come to the search page the first time, for example via the "View Distribution Bugs", the button says "Search Again", even though I didn't search for anything yet. At least one no search has been performed it should simply say "Search", but I don't seen any reason for changing it to "Search Again".

Also the "Advanced" search button, shouldn't be a button, but a link, since I'm not actually doing an advanced search when I press the button. I only get to see the advanced search controls.