ACQ Brief Record fields don't follow Definition ID order

[Brian Kennedy]

On EG 3.11, when adding a Brief Record to a Purchase Order, the Brief Record fields will be shown in the order as listed in Acquisitions Admin -> Line Item MARC Attribute Definitions.

Saving an entry will push that item to the bottom of the list. This new order is then reflected in the Add Brief Record dialogue in a Purchase Order.

For example, if Definition ID #1 Title is edited/saved, it will appear at the bottom of the list and then appear at the bottom of the Add Brief Record editor fields.

See attached screenshot.

If a specific order is desired for the Add Brief Record dialogue, each item will have to be edited & saved to reorganize the list.

Should the Add Brief Record dialogue instead use the Definition ID to order the items? If changes to the order are desired that field will have to be editable in the Line Item MARC Attribute Defs window, and I am unsure if that will have unpleasant side-effects elsewhere.

[Galen Charlton (gmc)]

The definition ID is meant to be an opaque primary key and is not directly editable (nor meant to be). It's pretty much the case throughout Evergreen that serially-assigned primary keys are not meant to imply an ordering in the interfaces. (And in my opinion, we should not start doing that.)

The order that the entries appear in the administrative interface by default is effectively random (or more precisely, subject to change at the whim of the database engine, although by _happenstance_ will typically start off in ID number order in a fresh database). Similarly, the brief record form does not display the attributes in any particular order.

So, to impose a consistent ordering, some options I see are:

[1] Sort them alphabetically by (translated) description
[2] Hardcode the order of the stock attributes in some way that makes the most sense to frequent users of the form, then alphabetize any non-stock attributes that may get added.
[3] Add a position column to the attributes definition to allow the Evergreen admin to change the display order
[4] Teach the brief record editor how to allow the user to reorder the fields as a user- or workstation-preference.

Noting that I am not a fan of options 3 or 4 on the grounds of avoiding adding to the configuration burden of Evergreen - unless that degree of tweaking is truly necessary. I think a well-chosen default is the way to go.

[Christine Morgan (cmorgan-z)]

Confirmed based on comments.