Sort by a nested key

[travenec]

Preflight Checklist

• I have completed all Troubleshooting Steps.
• I'm on the latest version of Directus.
• There's no other issue that already describes my problem.

Describe the Bug

Hello everyone,

seems there is a trouble with sorting by a nested key.

Let's say I have a collection video which contains one file (M2O).

The endpoint /items/video?fields=*,file.*&sort=id correctly produces:

{
  data: [
    {
      id: "video1",
      status: "draft",
      ...
      file: {
        id: "491fc5a7-45fa-4320-9f12-3dbf4625bd3a",
        storage: "local",
        title: "Video 1 lowres",
        type: "video/mp4",
        ...
      }
    },
    {
      id: "video2",
      status: "draft",
      ...
      file: {
        id: "b9e710ce-8210-4270-aec2-a80bb26cb390",
        storage: "local",
        title: "Video 2 lowres",
        type: "video/mp4",
        ...
      }
    }
  ]
}

What fails is when I sort the date by nested key, e.g. file.title. Calling /iitems/video?fields=*,file.*&sort=file.title produces INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.

To Reproduce

It can be easily reproduced by creating a O2M relationship and trying sort by a nested key as described step by step above.

Errors Shown

The message in server console is:

🚨 error select "video"."id", "video"."status", ..., "video"."file" from "video" order by "video"."file"."title" asc limit $1 - missing FROM-clause entry for table "file" 
error: select "video"."id", "video"."status", ..., "video"."file" from "video" order by "video"."file"."title" asc limit $1 - missing FROM-clause entry for table "file"

What version of Directus are you using?

9.4.0 / 9.5.2

What version of Node.js are you using?

v16.13.0

What database are you using?

Postgres 14

What browser are you using?

Chrome

What operating system are you using?

macOS

How are you deploying Directus?

locally, Docker

[Lukas-Sachse]

This functionality is not implemented yet. Look at this discussion: #4502

[travenec]

I see. Sorry about that, did check all the issues, did not check discussion for this topic.

Wouldn't it be meaningful to mention that in docs?

[rijkvanzanten]

Wouldn't it be meaningful to mention that in docs?

I'm not sure! Generally speaking, the documentation lists/explains all the features that exist. Otherwise, they can virtually get infinitely big (as there's always another feature somebody could want for something) 🤔 (cc @erondpowell)

[rijkvanzanten]

For now, this is a duplicate of #4502 👍🏻

[erondpowell]

I'm not sure! Generally speaking, the documentation lists/explains all the features that exist. Otherwise, they can virtually get infinitely big (as there's always another feature somebody could want for something) 🤔 (cc @erondpowell)

I think this whole category of questions will be resolved once we have that dynamic FAQ system properly implemented.
Non-features like this will become a question, living right below the doc, on the relevant page.