Product Listing Default Sort Order

[Ajeh]

It does not matter what settings I change, the products on my site in every category are listed in alphabetical order by product name. Am I missing something? How do I change it so all my products are listed by date added, newest on top? I cannot believe how confusing this is!

Maybe we are confusing where you are when you think you want to sort by date ...

What URL do you want to sort by date?

NOTE: the Product Listing that is used when you select a Category does not have built in a Sort by Date ... you would need to customize the code for this ...

This is one of the reasons why there is a handy dandy New Products Listing ...

[Ajeh]

But what does the SORT value do? You know , when you export the store to easy populate and there is a SORT value for each product?

How can I enable this?

If you mean the field products_sort_order ... this is for when you want to physically sort the products in an order that is not natural to a logical sort order based on a field in the products or products_description tables ... so you manually apply the sort order of the products yourself ...

[limelites]

This one has me puzzled too.... I'm trying to make the default sort order newest to oldest... How can this be achieved?

[Ajeh]

This is not built into the Product Listing to sort by date ...

You would have to customize it for this feature ...

NOTE: There is always the New Products Listing for sorting by date and then leave the Product Listing for the other fields ...

[limelites]

I know, but new products listing displays only products a few days old (depending on settings) and will display products from all categories.

I wonder how difficult it'd be to manipulate the code to display default new to old images.

[s_t_e_v_e]

The listing order for the index page and categories appears to be controlled by the file.. includes/index_filters/default_filter.php - this cannot be overrided.

This 'hack' seems to work, but will need thorough testing...

line 101

// sort by products_sort_order when PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER is left blank
// for reverse, descending order use:
//       $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order desc, pd.products_name";

//        $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order, pd.products_name";
          $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_date_added DESC, pd.products_name"; 

[limelites]

s_t_e_v_e, I can't believe you! I think the guru's should take a leaf from your book though.

You've helped me now with a dozen or so problems and each and every time, you've responded with a one liner and each and every time it's been 100% spot on perfect.

You've hit the nail on the head here again and it seemed effortless, you're amazing!!

To summarise then, for anyone who wants the default order of their product listings to be newest-to-oldest then here's all you need do:

Admin/Product Listing/Product Listing/Display Product Listing Default Sort Order make sure that you edit this and leave it blank... don't put anything in there at all.... (NOTE: Leave Blank for Product Sort Order. Sort the Product Listing in the order you wish for the default display to start in to get the sort order setting. Example: 2a)

Now:

edit /includes/index_filters/default_filter.php:

replace approx lines 123-129:

// sort by products_sort_order when PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER is left blank
// for reverse, descending order use:
//       $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order desc, pd.products_name";
          $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order, pd.products_name";
          break;
        }
      } 

with this:

// sort by products_sort_order when PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER is left blank
// for reverse, descending order use:
//       $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order desc, pd.products_name";
          $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_date_added DESC, pd.products_name";
          break;
        }
      } 

Again Steve, thank you for your time. True genius!!

[s_t_e_v_e]

Glad it worked! and the instructions you've given will help others.

[snarfy]

Many thanks S_t_e_v_e and limelites, this also worked for me

[jymontoya]

I also have an issue with the product sort order. No matter what setting I put (4a) the listing does not change.

I checked my default_filter.php file and found some strange comments around almost all of the lines for this:

// set the default sort order setting from the Admin when not defined by customer
if (!isset($_GET['sort']) and PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER != '') {
$_GET['sort'] = PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER;
}

if (isset($column_list)) {
if ((!isset($_GET['sort'])) || (isset($_GET['sort']) && !ereg('[1-8][ad]', $_GET['sort'])) || (substr($_GET['sort'], 0, 1) > sizeof($column_list)) ) {
for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($column_list); $i<$n; $i++) {
if (isset($column_list[$i]) && $column_list[$i] == 'PRODUCT_LIST_NAME') {
$_GET['sort'] = $i+1 . 'a';
//$listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order, pd.products_name";
break;
} else {
// sort by products_sort_order when PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER is left blank
// for reverse, descending order use:
// $listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order desc, pd.products_name";
//$listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order, pd.products_name";
break;
}
}
// if set to nothing use products_sort_order and PRODUCTS_LIST_NAME is off
if (PRODUCT_LISTING_DEFAULT_SORT_ORDER == '') {
$_GET['sort'] = '20a';
}
} else {
$sort_col = substr($_GET['sort'], 0 , 1);
$sort_order = substr($_GET['sort'], 1);
$listing_sql .= ' order by ';
switch ($column_list[$sort_col-1]) {
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_MODEL':
//$listing_sql .= "p.products_model " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '') . ", pd.products_name";
break;
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_NAME':
//$listing_sql .= "pd.products_name " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '');
break;
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_MANUFACTURER':
//$listing_sql .= "m.manufacturers_name " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '') . ", pd.products_name";
break;
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_QUANTITY':
//$listing_sql .= "p.products_quantity " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '') . ", pd.products_name";
break;
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_IMAGE':
//$listing_sql .= "pd.products_name";
break;
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_WEIGHT':
//$listing_sql .= "p.products_weight " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '') . ", pd.products_name";
break;
case 'PRODUCT_LIST_PRICE':
// $listing_sql .= "final_price " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '') . ", pd.products_name";
//$listing_sql .= "p.products_price_sorter " . ($sort_order == 'd' ? 'desc' : '') . ", pd.products_name";
break;
}
}
}


Did TM screw me again? Should I just un comment the lines to fix? errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I uncommented the first two instances of:

$listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order, pd.products_name";

$listing_sql .= " order by p.products_sort_order, pd.products_name";

Now it works. Don't you just love it when you figure it out after you've typed up a post?

But I REALLY want to know why all those other lines are commented out, is this normal!??