Field sort order can be indeterminate

[wezell]

When we return the list of fields on a content type, we only order by sort_order. We have a bunch of content types that have indeterminate sort orders in their - like the host type below:

dotcms=# select field_name, velocity_var_name, sort_order from field where structure_inode='855a2d72-f2f3-4169-8b04-ac5157c4380c';
       field_name        | velocity_var_name | sort_order
-------------------------+-------------------+------------
 fields-0                | fields0           |          1
 fields-1                | fields1           |          1
 Host Name               | hostName          |          1
 Aliases                 | aliases           |          1
 Tag Storage             | tagStorage        |          1
 Is Default              | isDefault         |          2
 Is System Host          | isSystemHost      |          3
 Host Thumbnail          | hostThumbnail     |          4
 Run Dashboard           | runDashboard      |          5
 Meta Data (Default)     | metaData          |          6
 Keywords                | keywords          |          7
 Description             | description       |          8
 Site Tags               | siteKeys          |          9
 Google Map              | googleMap         |         10
 Google Analytics        | googleAnalytics   |         12
 Add This                | addThis           |         14
 Proxy Url for Edit Mode | proxyEditModeUrl  |         17
 Embedded Dashboard Url  | embeddedDashboard |         18

This means when someone pushes a content type from one server to another, the sort orders can display completely differently based on the database and as soon as the content type is persisted, it will appear to have been reordered.

[nollymar]

PR: #18543

[nollymar]

Passed Internal QA (note to QA) : The best way to test the fix was through ITs. However, it is recommended to use the old starter to verify that the sort order is working correctly.

[bryanboza]

Fixed, tested on release-5.3.2 // Postgres and now this appear in the correct order

[jcastro-dotcms]

@bryanboza why are the numbers 5 and 6 duplicated in the list?

[wezell]

@jcastro-dotcms I think as soon as you "reorder" the fields in the back end, they will de-dupe. The issue was that a lot of customers have data like the above where multiple fields shared the same sort_order and when the fields get pushed from one instance to another, they would magically "re-order" themselves.

What the fix did was add a secondary sort in the SQL by the velocity_var_name so that even if there are multiple fields with the same sort_order their sort will still be consistant across environments. Now, it might initially show as consistantly wrong, but with the secondary sort crieteria, you should be able to fix the order once and then never again.