Issue with File Sorting Logic

[Nat Katin-Borland]

When you upload a bunch of files to KARL with file names containing numbers, KARL doesn't seem to know how to deal with these in a logical way. It seems to sort files by the first digit only, rather than the entire number. So if you upload a series of documents it groups them like this: 1, 10, 100, 101, 102… then 2, 20, 200, 201. Obviously it would make more sense for the end user if items were grouped by in a more logical way, taking the entire number into account: 1, 2..10....100, 101...200, etc.

[Paul Everitt (paul-agendaless)]

Unfortunately that's the way alphabetic sorting works. When sorting alphabetically:

1 A
10 A
100 A
2 A
20 A
3 A

...is the sort order. Attached is a spreadsheet where I sorted alphabetically to demonstrate this. I'll see if Python/Javascript offers any choices for easily doing some other kind of sort, but I suspect our options are limited.

[Paul Everitt (paul-agendaless)]

Shane, assigning this to you only for a ruling. I'm not sure how sorting works in the folders, but I *think* SlickGrid does the sorting in JS. If so, can you give a ruling on whether this is, as I suspect, too much for a JS sort algorithm?

[Nat Katin-Borland (nborland)]

OK, sounds good...

--
Nathaniel Katin-Borland
Support Specialist
Knowledge Management Initiative
KARL Support Team

Open Society Foundations - New York Office
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
Email: <email address hidden>
Phone: [phone]
http://www.soros.org/
http://www.karlproject.org
-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of Paul Everitt
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 1:30 PM
To: Nathaniel Katin-Borland
Subject: [Bug 919285] Re: Issue with File Sorting Logic

Unfortunately that's the way alphabetic sorting works. When sorting
alphabetically:

1 A
10 A
100 A
2 A
20 A
3 A

...is the sort order. Attached is a spreadsheet where I sorted alphabetically to demonstrate this. I'll see if Python/Javascript offers any choices for easily doing some other kind of sort, but I suspect our options are limited.

** Attachment added: "Spreadsheet screenshot demonstrating alpha sort"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/karl3/+bug/919285/+attachment/2684382/+files/FirefoxScreenSnapz001.png

--
You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug report.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/919285

Title:
  Issue with File Sorting Logic

Status in KARL3:
  New

Bug description:
  When you upload a bunch of files to KARL with file names containing
  numbers, KARL doesn't seem to know how to deal with these in a logical
  way. It seems to sort files by the first digit only, rather than the
  entire number. So if you upload a series of documents it groups them
  like this: 1, 10, 100, 101, 102… then 2, 20, 200, 201. Obviously it
  would make more sense for the end user if items were grouped by in a
  more logical way, taking the entire number into account: 1,
  2..10....100, 101...200, etc.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/karl3/+bug/919285/+subscriptions

[Paul Everitt (paul-agendaless)]

Sorry, I meant "Balazs, assigning this to you…"

--Paul

On Jan 20, 2012, at 1:33 PM, Paul Everitt wrote:

> Shane, assigning this to you only for a ruling. I'm not sure how sorting
> works in the folders, but I *think* SlickGrid does the sorting in JS. If
> so, can you give a ruling on whether this is, as I suspect, too much for
> a JS sort algorithm?
>
> ** Changed in: karl3
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
>
> ** Changed in: karl3
> Milestone: None => m88
>
> ** Changed in: karl3
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Balazs Ree (ree)
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to KARL3.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/919285
>
> Title:
> Issue with File Sorting Logic
>
> Status in KARL3:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> When you upload a bunch of files to KARL with file names containing
> numbers, KARL doesn't seem to know how to deal with these in a logical
> way. It seems to sort files by the first digit only, rather than the
> entire number. So if you upload a series of documents it groups them
> like this: 1, 10, 100, 101, 102… then 2, 20, 200, 201. Obviously it
> would make more sense for the end user if items were grouped by in a
> more logical way, taking the entire number into account: 1,
> 2..10....100, 101...200, etc.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/karl3/+bug/919285/+subscriptions

[Paul Everitt (paul-agendaless)]

Verdict rendered and consented.

[Balazs Ree (ree)]

I think we need to be able to server side (catalog) sorting here.

But even if we want and can do a client side sorting, any comparison between two elements that is more elaborate then a constant fixed number of steps, would turn out too slow in practice. (as this one would, no doubt, require a cycle through each word in the sentence, if I understand the issue correctly)