322137 - Temporary bookmark sort (click on column) broken

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Michael Salem]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Platform: released Windows v1.5, updated several times from earlier versions, with several extensions. Have found many reports on bookmark sorting, but didn't see this one. On temporarily sorting bookmarks by name, by left-clicking on "Name" in the header line in the right-hand pane, sorting is weird and incorrect. Tried (a) with the contents of a folder, and (b) the results of a search, in the rh pane; clicking repeatedly on Name cycles between THREE different orders, none accurately alphabetical. In the folder contents, two seem to be alphabetical except for the first or last 2 entries; the third is more or less alphabetical at first, then totally random. In the search results, two are correct, the third incorrect, probably because the search results are fresh with no history.



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1: type in a search term
2: left-click repeatedly on the "Name" column header.

and

1': open the contents of a folder in the rh window
2: left-click repeatedly on the "Name" column header.

Actual Results:  
Three different sort orders, one nearly or completely alphabetical, one nearly or competely reverse alphabetical, one with many (folder) or few (search results) errors

Expected Results:  
Sort toggling between alphabetical and reverse alphabetical, with no errors

Sorted accurately with two, not three, results

Comment 1

[Seairth Jacobs]

The three options are:

Ascending
Descending
Unsorted (same as it appears in the bookmark menu or sidebar)

Unsorted could easily appear to be sorted for the first few items (automatically sorted when imported from IE, for instance) while the rest are unsorted (entirely based on the order that they were added).  This is not a but in the program, but an intentional feature.  If you want this aspect changed, re-submit it as an enhancement.

As for the "except for the first or last 2 entries", I was not able to reproduce this.  Can you attach a screenshot of this behavior?

Comment 2

[Michael Salem]

The problem was within my bookmarks database: a few bookmarks must have been stored with non-displayable characters at the beginnning of the name (by careless copying and pasting); these bookmarks always sorted at the top of the list. The problem was cured by changing the name to text typed in. I was further confused by the third, unsorted, option (not usual for Windows, but acceptable).

It may possibly be worth stripping non-displayable characters from stored bookmark names, but otherwise I would withdraw my report, with apologies.

Having already raised a report, I would mention a very minor related problem which does appear to be real, but not important enough to report; and it may already have been reported. It takes only a few seconds to check.

In the Bookmarks window, highlight a folder in the left pane, bringing its contents into the right pane. Sort the right pane (e.g., by clicking on "Name"). The left pane is also sorted by name, but the highlighted item is no longer the directory being displayed, but the item which happens to occupy the same position, giving the false impression that a different folder is being displayed.

Comment 3

[Steve England [:stevee]]

Reporter, do you still see this problem with the latest Firefox 2? If not, can you please close this bug as WORKSFORME. Thanks!

Comment 4

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

marking incomplete, feel free to reopen if you can report the correct steps to reprodice the problem and you still see in the latest version