Strapi GraphQL default sort

[stefankainz]

Bug report

Describe the bug

I'm using Strapi Version 3.4.6 with a mutation "generateQuiz" to generate a quiz with a set of random questions from a pool of questions. In the controller I query all questions (inefficient, I know, but thats ok for the moment), shuffle the questions and pick the first x questions from the randomized list. When the questionpool contains less than x questions I would expect to get a quiz with a randomly sorted list of all available questions. Thats the case when I query the REST-API, but not when I query the GraphQL-API. GraphQL returns a quiz with questions always sorted by their ID.

Sample: Let's assume we have a question pool of 9 questions (IDs 1 to 9) and we want to generate a quiz with a maximum of 10 questions. In the generateQuiz controller following happens:

1. Query all (9) questions from the database
2. Shuffle them
3. take 10 out of the 9 questions -> results in still 9 questions
4. create a new quiz with the questions
5. return

When I call the REST-API I get a quiz with the following list of questions for example: [5,3,2,8,6,1,4,9,7]

When I call the GraphQL-API I get always a quiz with a sorted list of the questions: [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]

Why is this the case? And can I change this behaviour?

Expected behavior

The GraphQL and REST-API behave the same regarding the sorting.

Code snippets

controller code:

    async generateQuiz(ctx) {
        const {questionCount, includeSubcategories} = ctx.request.body;
        const categoryId = ctx.request.body.categoryId ? Number(ctx.request.body.categoryId) : undefined;

        const userId = ctx.state.user.id;

        let params = {
            userId,
            // eslint-disable-next-line camelcase
            deadline_gte: new Date(),
            // eslint-disable-next-line camelcase
            finishedAt_null: true,
            category: categoryId,
            // eslint-disable-next-line camelcase
            category_null: categoryId ? undefined : true
        };

        // remove undefined properties
        params = _.pickBy(params, v => v !== undefined);

        const quiz = await strapi.services.quiz.findOne(params);

        if (quiz) {
            throw strapi.errors['badRequest'](`An active quiz with categoryId ${categoryId} already exists. quizId: ${quiz.id}`);
        }

        let questions;
        if (categoryId) {
            const searchCategories = await strapi.services.category.list(categoryId, includeSubcategories);
            const searchCategoryIds = _.map(searchCategories, 'id');

            // eslint-disable-next-line camelcase
            questions = await strapi.services['quiz-question'].find({category_in: searchCategoryIds}, []);
        }
        else {
            if (includeSubcategories !== false) {
                questions = await strapi.services['quiz-question'].find({}, []);
            } else {
                throw strapi.errors['badRequest'](`includeSubcategories cannot be set to false when no categoryId is specified`);
            }
        }

        // get question IDs
        let questionIds = _.map(questions, 'id');

        // shuffle
        questionIds = _.shuffle(questionIds);

        // take first x question IDs
        if (questionCount) {
            questionIds = _.take(questionIds, questionCount);
        }

        strapi.log.debug('questionIds',questionIds);

        // get number of questions
        const quizQuestionCount = questionIds.length;

        const now = _.now();
        const deadline = now + (quizQuestionCount * strapi.config.get('server.app.secondsPerQuestionInQuiz', 60) * 1000);

        const data = {
            startedAt: now,
            finishedAt: null,
            deadline,
            userId,
            questions: questionIds,
            category: categoryId
        };

        const newQuiz = await strapi.services.quiz.create(data);

        strapi.log.debug('newQuiz question ids', _.map(newQuiz.questions,'id'));

        return newQuiz;
    },

graphql query:

mutation {
  generateQuiz(questionCount: 15) {
    id
    questions {
      id
    }
  }
}

sample console output:

[2021-02-18T08:56:14.622Z] debug questionIds [2,9,1,5,7,6,4,8,3]
[2021-02-18T08:56:14.711Z] debug newQuiz question ids [5,2,6,9,4,8,3,1,7]

graphql query result:

{
  "data": {
    "generateQuiz": {
      "id": "91",
      "questions": [
        {
          "id": "1"
        },
        {
          "id": "2"
        },
        {
          "id": "3"
        },
        {
          "id": "4"
        },
        {
          "id": "5"
        },
        {
          "id": "6"
        },
        {
          "id": "7"
        },
        {
          "id": "8"
        },
        {
          "id": "9"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

api result (removed unnecessary data):

{
    "id": 88,
    ...
    "questions": [
        {
            "id": 5,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 3,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 2,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 8,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 6,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 1,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 4,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 9,
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": 7,
            ...
        }
    ]
}

System

• Node.js version: 14.12.0
• NPM version: 6.14.8
• Strapi version: 3.4.6
• Database: sqlite
• Operating system: Windows 10

Additional context

Reference to stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66257037/strapi-graphql-default-sort

[derrickmehaffy]

Hello,

I see you are wanting to ask a question that is not really a bug report or a feature request, questions should be directed to the forum. Please see the following contributing guidelines for asking a question here.

[stefankainz]

Hi,

in my opinion this is a bug or at least an unwanted behaviour, because the REST and GraphQL API should behave the same way.

BR Stefan

[derrickmehaffy]

This issue has been mentioned on Strapi Community Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://forum.strapi.io/t/strapi-graphql-default-sort/3021/1

[derrickmehaffy]

Hi,

in my opinion this is a bug or at least an unwanted behaviour, because the REST and GraphQL API should behave the same way.

BR Stefan

I do understand however we only allow issues on the GitHub for existing code and not customizations. Everything else should be pointed to the forum.

When it comes to code changes to fix a "bug" we need steps to reproduce the bug and fix needs to be accepted globally by everyone using Strapi not just a specific use-case.

[nadirabbas]

I believe you can pseudo randomize them. What I mean is you can randomly select a field of that question model (e.g title, created_at, etc) and sort by that field. Also, select asc and desc randomly. Also, the sort-by field should be selected randomly every time you refresh or something. This will give you enough randomization.