Default ordering of articles in the back-end

[grayz]

For my needs I want to have all articles listed by their ID in descending order. Default ordering is by title (alphabetical) in ascending order. To change the ordering column in Joomla 3.2:

in /administrator/components/com_content/models/articles.php
find

Code: Select all

parent::populateState('a.title', 'asc');

change to

Code: Select all

parent::populateState('a.id', 'desc');

find

Code: Select all

$orderCol = $this->state->get('list.ordering', 'a.title');
$orderDirn = $this->state->get('list.direction', 'asc');

change to

Code: Select all

$orderCol = $this->state->get('list.ordering', 'a.id');
$orderDirn = $this->state->get('list.direction', 'desc');

This will make the ordering default by ID. Still, the list of ordering option will remain with option "By Title Ascending". As a result, pressing the "Clear" button will return the ordering by title. So, to fix this:

in /administrator/components/com_content/models/forms/filter_articles.xml
find

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	<field
		name="fullordering"
		type="list"
		label="COM_CONTENT_LIST_FULL_ORDERING"
		description="COM_CONTENT_LIST_FULL_ORDERING_DESC"
		onchange="this.form.submit();"
		default="a.title ASC"
		>

change to

Code: Select all

	<field
		name="fullordering"
		type="list"
		label="COM_CONTENT_LIST_FULL_ORDERING"
		description="COM_CONTENT_LIST_FULL_ORDERING_DESC"
		onchange="this.form.submit();"
		default="a.id DESC"
		>

Personally I would like namely ordering by ID to be the default one. Can it be changed in the Joomla core files in next releases?

[dchristof]

I second this request. Seems crazy we've reached Joomla 3.2 and the only way to change the article default order in the backend is still through hacking core files.. Please please whoever's reading this give us an option to change the article manager default order in the backend.

[jennix]

thirded. C'mon guys. There's a dorp down to change it, please give me an option to set the default

[seanos]

Me too! This is a major problem with Joomla usability. I spend far too much time fiddling with stuff like this.

[gumibear]

Hey,

I tried this on a website on 3.1.5 and it worked fine, except that website didn't have the filter_articles.xml file, so I didn't do that step, but it wasn't needed.

I also tried it on a 3.2.1 website and it isn't working for me. the dropdown list correctly shows id descending as preselected, but the actual list is still default sorting by title ascending. if i press the clear button, it will correctly sort by id descending.


does anyone know what's happening? maybe the 3.2.1 point update broke this tweak?

[grayz]

@gumibear
just applied the hack to J3.2.2, it works as described in the first message.
have you modified /administrator/components/com_content/models/articles.php ?

[phobia82]

This has been a request for so long, so I decided to code a simple plugin to avoid changing the core files, working from 2.5 to 3.3.6 so far:

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... ault-order

[gumibear]

phobia82's tweak worked for me.. thanks so much!!

[glitterchickUK]

Is there anywhere "official" to request or vote on feature suggestions like this? I'd like to be able to set the default sort order for articles in the admin area too, but I'd rather not hack core files, and it's something I'm surprised isn't already in Joomla.

[nugepcua]

how to do it in joomla 3.7? unfortunately latest update broke everything and this fix does not apply anymore.

[Nidzo2203]

Comparing Articles.php from version 3.6.5 with current Joomla 3.7, there are some changes that starts from line 324 that affects ordering.

If I replace those lines of code with code from Joomla 3.6.5 Articles.php, sorting by ID descending works.
Can someone confirm is it safe to make this changes and what could be negative effects.

Current code starts from line 324 to 338:

Code: Select all

// Add the list ordering clause.
		$orderCol  = $this->state->get('list.fullordering', 'a.id');
		$orderDirn = '';

		if (empty($orderCol))
		{
			$orderCol  = $this->state->get('list.ordering', 'a.id');
			$orderDirn = $this->state->get('list.direction', 'DESC');
		}

		$query->order($db->escape($orderCol) . ' ' . $db->escape($orderDirn));

		return $query;
	}

Code from Joomla 3.6.5 Joomla

Code: Select all

// Add the list ordering clause.
		$orderCol = $this->state->get('list.ordering', 'a.id');
		$orderDirn = $this->state->get('list.direction', 'desc');

		if ($orderCol == 'a.ordering' || $orderCol == 'category_title')
		{
			$orderCol = 'c.title ' . $orderDirn . ', a.ordering';
		}

		// SQL server change
		if ($orderCol == 'language')
		{
			$orderCol = 'l.title';
		}

		if ($orderCol == 'access_level')
		{
			$orderCol = 'ag.title';
																						  
		}

		$query->order($db->escape($orderCol . ' ' . $orderDirn));

		return $query;
	}

[ilkogruev]

Is there a solution to this problem?

[pethr]

Amazing we still need to be hacking this. Nidzo2203's solution works for me, I can't see this breaking anything important.

[dragonrider]

Thank You Nidzo2203, this works for me as well.

[ilkogruev]

I do not like the result. There are problems.
What you need is to change the order of the default articles - the latest ones are top.