Sort criteria for group member list

[sooskriszta]

The member lists (e.g. Group member list) are sorted by default by date joined.

Ideally, the site admin should be able to define how the list would be sorted - alphabetically, by most activity, by latest activity, etc.

Additionally, site admin should be able to check a box to say whether or not the other members shall be able to sort on the fly the way they can sort groups...

[DJPaul]

I'm inclined to say that this is something that could be implemented in a theme, rather than core, and that we don't want to introduce this to BP-Default, but want a second opinion.

[sooskriszta]

Please bear in mind that realistically, most stuff left to themes will not be implemented. There are not that many BP-supporting themes out there, and the move seems to be to enable BP to play nice with generic WP themes #3741

Given this, it might be a good idea to include this simple but useful functionality in BP default.

[sooskriszta]

I mean should be part of bundled theme (not BP Default)

[boonebgorges]

This is a good idea in theory. It would be nice if we could simply port over the functionality from the Members component, but it won't work wholesale because of some subtle differences in the way the two loops work, and in the way AJAX functions in the two places. So it will take quite a bit of work.

I think it's worth implementing, but not worth prioritizing. Patches welcome.

[wrowlands]

I believe this should be part of the core functionality of BuddyPress. Just think about it... A person comes to the members list page and does a search for a member's name (or other profile fields) and finds that the member does not show up since the member has not been active (last active is the default sort). At that point most users will not immediately notice that there is a function to sort alphabetically which is the assumed search criteria. At that point most users would leave the page thinking that the searched-for member/item did not exist in the database. If they then notice that there is a way to sort alphabetical and then they click on the sort by alphabetical in the sort by drop-down, the entire list of members comes up and the sort by criteria goes away. This makes for a VERY poor user experience. Also, there is no way to search for a person's last name. I am amending the php files to fix this for our sites, although the average web developer out there does not know how to do this. If this kind of code was part of sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook, those sites would lose members quickly as simple search functions are the basic functions users expect. I would recommend rethinking this and adding the admin the ability to change the default sort order... and also to be able to sort by last name.

[boonebgorges]

wrowlands - Thanks for the feedback. But I think you're thinking of something different. This ticket is a discussion of adding sort criteria to the *group member* list. What you are requesting is that the admin should be able to set the default order on the main Members directory. This is a reasonable suggestion, but deserves its own ticket.

Now that I look at this ticket a bit more closely, I can see that there are already enhancement tickets open for the issue in question. See #1110 and #921. Closing this one as a duplicate.

[sooskriszta]

Actually @boonebgorges this ticket refers to both issues. What @wrowlands is saying is reflected in the original ticket as "site admin should be able to define how the list would be sorted - alphabetically, by most activity, by latest activity, etc."

[boonebgorges]

Yeah, I guess you're right. In that case, please open a separate ticket for that. (Anytime you find yourself starting a new paragraph along the lines of "Additionally" or "Also", it probably means it should have its own ticket.)

[sooskriszta]

I guess the stuff I say with "additionally" is already in #1110 so we are all set!

[sooskriszta]

I suppose the work on 1.7 theme is in full swing, so perhaps time to revisit this?

[boonebgorges]

See also #4482. I plan to look at that ticket, and perhaps also this one, once there are unit tests for the query methods in question.

[sooskriszta]

#4482 seems fixed now. But this one is pending.

[boonebgorges]

This has been completed. See #921 and r7948 r7949. Marking as duplicate.

[sooskriszta]

#921 looks good.

Do you think per #4129 admin should be able to define DEFAULT sort order?

[boonebgorges]

Do you think per #4129 admin should be able to define DEFAULT sort order?

I think it'd be nice if this value were customizable by filter. I think it's way overkill to have an admin-level option for it. I also think that the same treatment would need to apply to all member lists, not just group members. This latter consideration makes me think that the request deserves a separate enhancement ticket.

[sooskriszta]

#5526 created.