Enhancement Request: User-Defined Default Sort Direction for Lists

[samwoo]

Hi all,

I would like to request the ability to set the default sort direction (on a per-user basis) for the request list and extend this to other similar lists.

Currently, I often need to view requests in descending order. Having to click the column heading once, then wait for the list to load, then again to sort descending each time is inconvenient. I sort descending 95% of the time, while others may prefer ascending.

I envision this as a cogwheel option in the “List” views, like so: 

Clicking the button would toggle between “Sort Direction: Ascending” and “Sort Direction: Descending” and this setting would persist for the Request List view. The ability to extend to custom views (including those that are shared) would also be great if possible.

Thanks,

Samuel

[Steve Giller]

Currently your Home View will remember the sort column and order.

Can I ask how you would envisage the inevitable scenario where you want Column A sorted ascending and Column B sorting descending being handled? Or Column A being ascending in one View and descending in another?

I'm sure what you ask is technically possible, but as with most decisions like this the functionality you're suggesting is highly unlikely to reduce frustration, and would quite possibly increase it.

[samwoo]

Hi @Steve Giller,

We've never had to sort by Column A and Column B, so I didn't think about it, but as you say, it is likely to be inevitable at some point. I think that would only truly work if we were also able to provide "Grouping" on columns, so if we group by the "Owned By" then sort by the "Date Logged" for example (and being about to collapse and uncollapse these groups, like in SharePoint) - but I'm not sure that is possible.

In terms of a column being ascending in one view and descending in another - we have various views for the various things. Most of us sorts by "Last Updated Date" by default, descending in out "Home View".

• We use the "Date" Custom Fields for our Starters, Movers, and Leavers process, so being able to sort on Custom Field 21 in ascending order by default, when navigating to the view would be great.
   
• We have a view of "Aged" tickets, so being able to sort on "Date Logged" ascending when navigating here would be perfect. We check this once a week. We also report on this information, but a view is just as good, if not better, as we can click on the request and go straight into it.
   
• We have also recently created a Service Desk monitoring View, which looks at all resolved tickets being assigned to the Service Desk Team.
  
  Because a "Comment" to a timeline post doesn't trigger a ticket being reopened (there is another forum post about that), we check this View 3 times a day and sort by "Date Resolved" descending, then look at the "Last Updated Date" and also the "Last Updated By" so we can easily see if the ticket in the Service Desk queue is still resolved but was last updated by the customer.
  
  If so then we manually reopen and reassign the ticket to the relevant team that resolved it in the first place, if the comment is the customer with a further question or there is a dissatisfaction with the initially provided service, or if the customer still have an issue.

These are just a few examples; I am sure there are more.

EDIT:

Might just be that the view config screens should contain the ability to define column ordering (and grouping if possible) as opposed to the idea I had in the screenshot in the first post.

[Steve Giller]

So it's starting to look like, rather than a "simple" sort preference (which I understand from a Customer's perspective is a "quick fix") this could actually be as much as a request to have every column in every view having a defined default sort order, then you factor in that a View is a fairly personal experience, so we're looking at a sort preference per column, per view, and per User - further complicated by Shared Custom Views ... that's before you consider Grouping and how that would look.

As always, I'm not saying that this can't or won't be considered or implemented, I'm just hoping to manage expectations by exploring how what looks like a small change can be far more complicated once it's spec'd out fully.

 

[Jim]

I do see some use out of this, our service desk seem to all be looking at requests in different orders and it looks like 'cherry picking' it would be nice to enforce the view is sorted by last updated time etc for us 

[Steve Giller]

@Jim Just to clarify, this would not enforce anything - even if it were implemented it would be setting a default order, but Users would still be able to configure/sort their views as they see fit.

[Jim]

@Steve Giller That is fine, I still want the flexibility, but setting a default for a shared view, that they could change as and when but did not save state, so they may sort by reference, but when they come back it returns to the shared views default sort list such as last updated date would be useful for the first line teams 

[Berto2002]

+1