Categories sort order (parent-child)

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aDNers

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Sep 11, 2017, 4:15:10 AM9/11/17
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Hello,

I almost feel a bit stupid asking this but does anyone know if it possible to control the order of the results returned by a loop of the categories for a given content? I am trying to return the categories in a hierarchical order with the parent first followed by the children. Using the following foreach-loop I get, what it feels like, a totally random sort order of the categories.

#foreach($cat in $test.categories)
<li><b>Category Name:</b> $!{cat.categoryName}</li>
<ul>
<li><i>Category Key:</i> $!{cat.key}</li>
<li><i>Velocity Variable Name:</i> $!{cat.categoryVelocityVarName}</li>
</ul>
#end

I found ways of returning both the children of a given parent, aswell as the parent categories of a given child - but just listing the categories for a given content seems totally random to me. Sometimes I get the child first, and in other cases the parent is returned first - and I don't understand why.)

Searching the forum I found this similar (unanswered) post from 2015 (https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/?place=forum/dotcms&showsearch=true&showpopout=true&parenturl=https%3A%2F%2Fdotcms.com%2Fforum%2F#!searchin/dotcms/categories$20sort/dotcms/Q28HmRysQSE/8RaX5lkf-KkJ) aswell as another post where using the Sorttool was suggested: 


Thanks in advance,

aDNers

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Sep 11, 2017, 9:52:33 AM9/11/17
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Hey, I was able to create a workaround. 

For each $cat in $test.categories I now check if the category has any children, if so I take the catkey and use the  getCategoryTreeUp to list all parents. This way I have control of the order in the output. Works for my current situation, but I am still curious if it is possible to have control over the category order somehow.

Mark Pitely

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Sep 11, 2017, 10:49:41 AM9/11/17
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There is a built-in sorting viewtool that allows you to sort certain types of lists/arrays.
I don't see any documentation anymore for it, though, so I am afraid they may be in the process of deprecating it. It still works, last I used it (3.6).

You would simply do something like this:

#set ($sortedcategories=$sorter.sort($test.categories,"key:desc"))

#foreach ($test in $sortedcategories)
...
#end

Aside from that, I don't know a good solution to your issue.
Maybe someone else knows something, especially on the status of the viewtool.

Mark Pitely
Marywood University




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Nathan Keiter

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Sep 11, 2017, 11:10:09 AM9/11/17
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Looks like it is still part of the toolbox in dotCMS 4.1.1 Additionally, it is a generic Velocity plugin, not a dotCMS specific tool.

 

https://github.com/dotCMS/core/blob/4.1.1/dotCMS/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/toolbox.xml#L52-L56

 

Nathan I. Keiter | Lead Network Applications Programmer | Benefits Advisory Council Member | I.D.E.A Council Member
Gettysburg College | Information Technology | DataSystems
Campus Box 2453 | 300 North Washington Street | Gettysburg, PA 17325
Phone: 717.337.6993

https://www.gettysburg.edu

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aDNers

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Sep 11, 2017, 11:22:11 AM9/11/17
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Nathan, Mark:

Thanks for your replies. Will look into the sorting plugin aswell, even though my "workaround" actually seems to do the job for me at the moment.

Br
Anders

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Mark Pitely

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Sep 11, 2017, 12:01:27 PM9/11/17
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Nathan,

Thanks! That reassures me. There is no documentation for it at all on dotCMS's site, at least that I can find.
It's a pretty nice tool, too.
They have documentation for $math, etc, which I think is another generic. You would think it would live there.


Mark

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John Michael Thomas

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Sep 11, 2017, 12:09:24 PM9/11/17
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Yeah, apologies that there are still a few of the Apache velocity viewtools we haven't yet created our own version of docs for.

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