Sort Nodes: tool to sort JCR nodes by node name or title #2537

YegorKozlov · 2021-02-28T11:54:06Z

Sometimes it is useful to re-order nodes in the repository by node name or title so that:

Nodes are sorted in all views in AEM TouchUI. Only the List View of the 'collectionpage' container in AEM supports sorting, other views like Card and Column print items in the default order which is by jcr:created. This makes it difficult to browse pages or tags with large number of children.
Node iterators in Java return sorted data.
User can choose whether to sort by node name or jcr:title

The patch extends the Sling POST Servlet with the acs-commons:sortNodes operation and and a simple GUI to execute it:

sort children of /content/someFolder by node name, case-insensitive (defaults)

curl -F":operation=acs-commons:sortNodes" http://localhost:4502/content/someFolder

sort children of /content/someFolder by jcr:title, case-sensitive

curl -F":operation=acs-commons:sortNodes" \
-F":sorterName=byTitle" \
-F":caseSensitive=true" \
http://localhost:4502/content/someFolder

AEM GUI

In AEM, navigate to the Tools > ACS AEM Commons > Sort JCR Nodes

In the path field, enter the the target path to sort. You can choose whether to sort by node name (default) or by jcr:title and whether sort should be case-sensitive.

Request Parameters

`:sorterName`

To select the actual sorter to execute, the :sorterName request parameter is used. Out of the box, the SortNodesOperation supports the following sorters:

Sorter	Description
`byName`	Sort nodes by node name (default)
`byTitle`	Sort nodes by jcr:title. The code will use the value of the jcr:title property of the underlying node or of it's jcr:content child node if it exists or default to node name of jcr:title was not found

`:caseSensitive`

Optional boolean parameter to control whether sort should be case sensitive (default: false), e.g.

+  /content/someFolder
     -  a           
     -  A           
     -  b           
     -  B

You can turn it off by setting the -F":caseSensitive=true" request parameter and the order will change to

+  /content/someFolder
     -  A           
     -  B           
     -  a           
     -  b

`:nonHierarchyFirst`

Optional boolean parameter to control whether sort should move non-hierarchy nodes to the top (default: true)

The default value is true which means jcr:content, rep:policy and such will be sorted first followed by other, hierarchy nodes like cq:Page, e.g.

+  /content/someFolder
     -  jcr:content // non-hierarchy
     -  rep:policy  // non-hierarchy
     -  a           // cq:Page
     -  b           // cq:Page
     -  c           // cq:Page
     -  p           // cq:Page

You can turn it off by setting the -F":nonHierarchyFirst=false" parameter
which will switch the mode to sort nodes regardless if they are nt:hierarchyNode or not

+  /content/someFolder
     -  a           // cq:Page
     -  b           // cq:Page
     -  c           // cq:Page
     -  jcr:content // non-hierarchy
     -  p           // cq:Page
     -  rep:policy  // non-hierarchy

Extending SortNodesOperation

OSGi services of the com.adobe.acs.commons.sorter.NodeSorter type can be used to implement new node sorters. For example, to register a sorter by sling:resourceType deploy the service below:

import com.adobe.acs.commons.sorter.NodeSorter;
import org.apache.jackrabbit.commons.JcrUtils;
import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Component;

import javax.jcr.Node;
import javax.jcr.RepositoryException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import java.util.Comparator;


@Component
public class ResourceTypeSorter implements NodeSorter {

    /**
     * A unique name which will be used to find the actual sorter by the
     * <code>:sorterName</code> request parameter
     */
    @Override
    public String getName() {
        return "resourceType";
    }

    /**
     * The label that will appear in the 'Select Sorter' drop-down in UI
     */
    @Override
    public String getLabel() {
        return "By resource type";
    }

    /**
     * Create a comparator to sort nodes.
     * Implementations can read additional parameters from request, e.g.
      * whether search should be case-sensitive, ascending/descending, etc.
    */
    @Override
    public Comparator<Node> createComparator(HttpServletRequest request) {

        return (n1, n2) -> {
            try {
                String val1 = JcrUtils.getStringProperty(n1, "jcr:content/sling:resourceType", "");
                String val2 = JcrUtils.getStringProperty(n2, "jcr:content/sling:resourceType", "");
                return val1.compareTo(val2);
            } catch (RepositoryException e) {
                return 0;
            }
        };
    }

}

Once the ResourceTypeSorter service is deployed you should be able to select the new sorter in the UI:

or pass it as -F":sorterName=resourceType" request parameter to curl:

curl -F":operation=acs-commons:sortNodes" -F":sorterName=resourceType" \
   http://localhost:4502/content/we-retail

Documentation is in another PR: Adobe-Consulting-Services/adobe-consulting-services.github.io#205

YegorKozlov · 2021-02-28T15:11:10Z

The Cognitive Complexity warning should be ignored. I'd like to keep that method as it is

badvision · 2021-02-28T16:39:21Z

All you have to do is take the body of each of the conditional statements and make each its own method.
Arguably, as separate methods these are individually more testable as well. Therefore I think the cognitive complexity warning is justified here.

shsteimer · 2021-02-28T18:51:54Z

2 notes of unsolicited feedback

"Nodes are sorted in all views in AEM TouchUI. Only the List View of the 'collectionpage' container in AEM supports sorting, other views like Card and Column print items in the default order which is by jcr:created. This makes it difficult to browse pages or tags with large number of children." This is no longer true as of 6.5 SP7 and the January release of cloud service. Not that this invalidates the feature, but just an FYI
I think the UI would be more intuitive if the sort options were a dropdown with options for "by name" and "by title." This is more in line with the general UI paradigms folks are used to for sorting, and also would allow additional sort modes to be added later without littering the screen with additional checkboxes.

davidjgonzalez · 2021-02-28T22:23:31Z

Understanding this a bigger change, but WDYT about allowing for the sorting to be pluggable, so users could implement their own sorters? We could provide an "OOTB" sorter Title, but someone could create one for last modified, or whatever?

I think the sorting of the hierarchy first could be OOTB and apply to any potential sorter.

In the Conf UI, we could have a dropdown that is driven by a datasource that lists all available sorters in the system.

WDYT, overkill? This is a great feature, i just expect ppl would like to sort on custom attributes as well (or things that are not title).

YegorKozlov · 2021-03-01T08:45:03Z

Understanding this a bigger change, but WDYT about allowing for the sorting to be pluggable, so users could implement their own sorters? We could provide an "OOTB" sorter Title, but someone could create one for last modified, or whatever?

It might be a good idea. NodeComparator will be a pluggable service and the POST operation will somehow resolve it from the request. The OOTB implementation will include NodeName and NodeTitle implementations and user can plug in their custom sorters.

YegorKozlov · 2021-03-01T08:50:03Z

"Nodes are sorted in all views in AEM TouchUI. Only the List View of the 'collectionpage' container in AEM supports sorting, other views like Card and Column print items in the default order which is by jcr:created. This makes it difficult to browse pages or tags with large number of children." This is no longer true as of 6.5 SP7 and the January release of cloud service. Not that this invalidates the feature, but just an FYI

Good to know. I still I think my tool will be useful . 6.5 SP7+ might support sorting in collection views, but not in the pathbrowser component which shows items in their repository order.

I think the UI would be more intuitive if the sort options were a dropdown with options for "by name" and "by title." This is more in line with the general UI paradigms folks are used to for sorting, and also would allow additional sort modes to be added later without littering the screen with additional checkboxes.

Agree. A drop-down would be more intuitive.

YegorKozlov · 2021-03-06T14:56:11Z

I checked-in support for pluggable sorters and updated the UI to select a sorter from a drop-down, see the updated screenshots

coveralls · 2021-03-07T16:29:10Z

Pull Request Test Coverage Report for Build 6322

76 of 98 (77.55%) changed or added relevant lines in 6 files are covered.
No unchanged relevant lines lost coverage.
Overall coverage increased (+0.07%) to 55.699%

Changes Missing Coverage	Covered Lines	Changed/Added Lines	%
bundle/src/main/java/com/adobe/acs/commons/sorter/NodeSorter.java	0	1	0.0%
bundle/src/main/java/com/adobe/acs/commons/sorter/impl/HierarchyNodeComparator.java	4	6	66.67%
bundle/src/main/java/com/adobe/acs/commons/sorter/impl/NodeNameSorter.java	11	14	78.57%
bundle/src/main/java/com/adobe/acs/commons/sorter/SortersPojo.java	0	4	0.0%
bundle/src/main/java/com/adobe/acs/commons/sorter/impl/NodeTitleSorter.java	14	18	77.78%
bundle/src/main/java/com/adobe/acs/commons/sorter/SortNodesOperation.java	47	55	85.45%

Totals
Change from base Build 6314:	0.07%
Covered Lines:	16132
Relevant Lines:	28963

💛 - Coveralls

davidjgonzalez · 2021-03-13T19:55:53Z

This was merged through #2544 which included a switch from WCMUse to SlingModel for the Sorters util

YegorKozlov added 4 commits January 27, 2021 19:21

utility to sort jcr nodes

a03081c

utility to sort jcr nodes

f428bdc

Merge branch 'master' into sort-nodes

3d7a1f9

sort-nodes tool: fixing code climate warnings

352623d

davidjgonzalez added the new feature label Feb 28, 2021

davidjgonzalez added this to the 4.12.0 milestone Feb 28, 2021

YegorKozlov added 2 commits March 6, 2021 17:37

sort-nodes: support for registering custom sorters

c962d3f

sort-nodes: trying to make code climate happy

eecb291

YegorKozlov added 3 commits March 7, 2021 13:55

sort-nodes: fixed junit errros

b9ae40d

sort-nodes: javadoc minor fixes

6cae8f5

Merge branch 'master' into sort-nodes

a7f233c

davidjgonzalez closed this Mar 13, 2021

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Sort Nodes: tool to sort JCR nodes by node name or title #2537

Sort Nodes: tool to sort JCR nodes by node name or title #2537

YegorKozlov commented Feb 28, 2021 •

edited

Loading

YegorKozlov commented Feb 28, 2021

badvision commented Feb 28, 2021

shsteimer commented Feb 28, 2021

davidjgonzalez commented Feb 28, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Mar 1, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Mar 1, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Mar 6, 2021 •

edited

Loading

coveralls commented Mar 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

davidjgonzalez commented Mar 13, 2021

Sort Nodes: tool to sort JCR nodes by node name or title #2537

Sort Nodes: tool to sort JCR nodes by node name or title #2537

Conversation

YegorKozlov commented Feb 28, 2021 • edited Loading

sort children of /content/someFolder by node name, case-insensitive (defaults)

sort children of /content/someFolder by jcr:title, case-sensitive

AEM GUI

Request Parameters

:sorterName

:caseSensitive

:nonHierarchyFirst

Extending SortNodesOperation

YegorKozlov commented Feb 28, 2021

badvision commented Feb 28, 2021

shsteimer commented Feb 28, 2021

davidjgonzalez commented Feb 28, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Mar 1, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Mar 1, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Mar 6, 2021 • edited Loading

coveralls commented Mar 7, 2021 • edited Loading

Pull Request Test Coverage Report for Build 6322

💛 - Coveralls

davidjgonzalez commented Mar 13, 2021

YegorKozlov commented Feb 28, 2021 •

edited

Loading

`:sorterName`

`:caseSensitive`

`:nonHierarchyFirst`

YegorKozlov commented Mar 6, 2021 •

edited

Loading

coveralls commented Mar 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading