750219 - Sort bookmarks list with most recently added ones at the top

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Awesomescreen, defect, P5)

Description

[arky [:arky]]

Show latest bookmark at the top of list

1. Add a bookmark
2. Go to new tab
3. Select bookmarks option
4. Scroll down bottom of the list to see recently added bookmark

Comment 1

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

I added a bookmark and it was the first to appear in my list (under Desktop Bookmarks due to Sync). Which build are you using?

Comment 2

[arky [:arky]]

Firefox Mobile from nightly.m.o 

Being running this instance on Gingerbread Samsung S2 phone without Sync.

Comment 3

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

Don't see this issue at all still on recent releases, also the entirety of about:home and bookmark listing has been re-written

Comment 4

[arky [:arky]]

I have to reopen this issue. The latest nightly has this problem with bookmarks. 
The last added bookmark item is not the first one in the list.

Comment 5

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

I'm seeing bookmarks added to the bottom of the list and above the bundled preset bookmarks (about:firefox, Add-Ons, Support).

Margaret, what is the defined sort order for newly added bookmarks on the new about:home? Did the old listing add newest bookmarks to the top of the stack in the listing? On the new about:home, bookmarks are added to the bottom of the current listing but above the bundled preset bookmarks.

Comment 6

[:Margaret Leibovic]

(In reply to Aaron Train [:aaronmt] from comment #5)
> I'm seeing bookmarks added to the bottom of the list and above the bundled
> preset bookmarks (about:firefox, Add-Ons, Support).

I'm seeing this, too. But I'm also seeing this on release, so I don't think it's a regression.

> Margaret, what is the defined sort order for newly added bookmarks on the
> new about:home? Did the old listing add newest bookmarks to the top of the
> stack in the listing? On the new about:home, bookmarks are added to the
> bottom of the current listing but above the bundled preset bookmarks.

We didn't change the queries when we wrote the new about:home, so there shouldn't be a different behavior now. However, I think it would be worth thinking about the order of these bookmarks, because I don't know that we've done that before.

We do not pass in any sort argument to the query:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/mobile/android/base/db/LocalBrowserDB.java#400

ibarlow, have you thought about what the order of the bookmarks in the bookmarks list should be?

rnewman, I believe we sync bookmark position, is that right? If so, we should probably sort these by position so that their order will be synced with desktop. I suppose that also means we should be thoughtful about setting a position for new mobile bookmarks when they're created.

Comment 7

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #6)

> rnewman, I believe we sync bookmark position, is that right?

We do, but Fennec does not use it for display (last I checked).

> If so, we should probably sort these by position so that their order will be synced
> with desktop.

It's not the sorting that sets the order that desktop sees: it's the numeric 'pos' in the DB.

'cos we don't (last I checked) insert new bookmarks with a valid (read: non-zero, contiguous, unique for its parent) position, Sync will roll its eyes and compute and persist a valid order, secure in the knowledge that desktop needs it and Fennec ignores it. Anyone who has Sync set up will -- after a sync, at least -- have a valid set of positions in the DB; anyone who doesn't will have a set of zeroes, or -1s, or whatever Fennec inserts.

The two things we can do at this point are:

* Display bookmarks by position (and presumably allow ordering or sorting?)
* Compute and maintain the positions in the DB, just as Places does on desktop.

The former depends on the latter.

Comment 8

[Ian Barlow (:ibarlow)]

(In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #6)
> 
> ibarlow, have you thought about what the order of the bookmarks in the
> bookmarks list should be?
> 

Wow, I must have missed this -- the bookmarks list was always meant to be ordered by recency. That is, the most recently added bookmark should appear at the top of the list.

Comment 9

[:Margaret Leibovic]

(In reply to Ian Barlow (:ibarlow) from comment #8)
> (In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #6)
> > 
> > ibarlow, have you thought about what the order of the bookmarks in the
> > bookmarks list should be?
> > 
> 
> Wow, I must have missed this -- the bookmarks list was always meant to be
> ordered by recency. That is, the most recently added bookmark should appear
> at the top of the list.

We should be able to do this while keeping the current position/sync behavior the same.

Although this isn't a regression, it would be nice to fix for the new about:home release, since people will be more likely to notice things.

Comment 10

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Attachment: WIP

This sorts the bookmarks by the date they were created. However, with this patch as-is, we'll also sort synced desktop bookmarks this way, which probably isn't what we want.

Comment 11

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Re-triaging per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1473195

Needinfo :susheel if you think this bug should be re-triaged.

Comment 12

[BMO Automation]

We have completed our launch of our new Firefox on Android. The development of the new versions use GitHub for issue tracking. If the bug report still reproduces in a current version of [Firefox on Android nightly](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fenix) an issue can be reported at the [Fenix GitHub project](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/). If you want to discuss your report please use [Mozilla's chat](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix#Connect_to_Matrix) server https://chat.mozilla.org and join the [#fenix](https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#fenix:mozilla.org) channel.