443745 - View>Sort>of "alpha" sort items is default to Z>A instead of A>Z

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect, P3)

Description

[Miles]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

If sort via Views/Sort/Sort by Name, the sort sequence is "Z-A Order."

If right click on a folder/Sort by Name, the sort sequence is "A-Z Order."

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. As stated above.
Actual Results:  
As stated above

Expected Results:  
Sort should be "A to Z Order" in both instances.

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

"Sort By Name" is rather useless (there is already a A-Z order or Z-A order view), and it could easily be confused with the context-menu option which does something quite different. So I would suggest to remove it.

Comment 2

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

This bug is invalid. The problem is another. Those are two different functions with the same name. 
"Sort By Name" in context menu doesn't simply display results in Library, but rearrange the bookmark positions. This rearranging can be done only from A to Z.

On the contrary Views/Sort/Sort by Name doesn't change the bookmark position, and can be done in A-Z and Z-A direction (you can select the direction in Views/Sort)

See related bug for Seamonkey: Bug 244519

Comment 3

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the reporter simply wants the View>Sort> Sort by Name to sort A>Z by default.  


I understand how date related View>Sorts should be latest(highest) to oldest(smallest). Sort by Name however would logically be better as A>Z not Z>A

Comment 4

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Applies to Views>Sort>Sort by:
Name, Tags, Location, Keywords and Description.

All should default to A>Z sort, not Z>A

Comment 5

[Miles]

Perhaps I was not sufficiently clear.  Quote:

If sort via Views/Sort/Sort by Name, the sort sequence is "Z-A Order."
unquote
That should read "....the default sort sequence is Z-A order."  And it should be A-Z order.

Comment 6

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

Well, some considerations:

1. clicking the first time on name column sorts ascending
2. it's the same for location, visit date, description, added, last modified
3. tags and keyword have other strange behaviours I'll file in other bugs
4. Clicking on Visit counts column sorts descending
5. On the contrary, if you select View->Sort->Sort by XXX in a blank profile, 
   Fx sorts descending by default for all of them
6. ascending sort is signaled with a reverse arrow, and vice versa.

I'll file other bugs - if not already present - for the other issues. I summarized them here to say that for me a correct solution is to make View->Sort->Sort by XXX ascending for all sorting types by default.

I don't think it's a good idea to make direction of View->Sort as for columns, since it will be highly misleading. For example, if you switch between 'View->Sort->Sort by Name' and 'View->Sort->Sort by Visit Count' and the sort directions are equal to column ones, you'll see the direction switching from A-Z to Z-A in View->Sort menu, without you have changed sort direction explicitly.

Comment 7

[Miles]

Perhaps I'm misreading you, but apparently some confusion here.  I am speaking of cntrl+sh+B>Views>Sort>Sort by Named.  That defaults to Z-A Sort Order. This requires additional clicking to sort as it should be -- Views>Sort>A to Z Sort Order.  And this goes on ad infinitum for every folder requiring setting.

Comment 8

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

Ok, indeed I proposed to switch the default direction for View->Sort to ascending (A-Z)

Comment 9

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

A patch would gladly be accepted, but we are not going to block the 3.1 release on this bug.

Comment 10

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

IIRC the images have been reverted recently, so this needs to che checked again on trunk

Comment 11

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Fixed by bug 444179.

Comment 12

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

not fixed on branch.  Default Views/Sort/Sort by Name, the sort sequence is "Z-A Order."

seen on:  Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b3pre) Gecko/20090203 Shiretoko/3.1b3pre

Comment 13

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

bug 444179 which fixed this was not fixed on branch yet either

Comment 15

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Verified fixed with builds on OS X and Windows:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090322 Minefield/3.6a1pre

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b4pre) Gecko/20090324 Shiretoko/3.5b4pre

Drew, as it was said in bug 485091 we already have an automated test for this issue?

Comment 16

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Drew, as it was said in bug 485091 we already have an automated test for this
> issue?

Yes, a browser chrome test.  The patch that includes it is https://bug444179.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=359342, and it's in the tree at http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/components/places/tests/browser/browser_sort_in_library.js

Comment 17

[Miles]

Thank you for fixing this!   However, for which Firefox version?  I'm running 3.0.7, will it be seen in 3.0.8, or subsequent 3.1, or --?

Comment 18

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

It will be in 3.5b4.  (3.1 was renamed 3.5.)

Comment 19

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Bug 451915 - move Firefox/Places bugs to Firefox/Bookmarks and History. Remove all bugspam from this move by filtering for the string "places-to-b-and-h".

In Thunderbird 3.0b, you do that as follows:
Tools | Message Filters
Make sure the correct account is selected. Click "New"
Conditions: Body   contains   places-to-b-and-h
Change the action to "Delete Message".
Select "Manually Run" from the dropdown at the top.
Click OK.

Select the filter in the list, make sure "Inbox" is selected at the bottom, and click "Run Now". This should delete all the bugspam. You can then delete the filter.

Gerv