#54 Sort Contents Field (Instead of Page Numbers)

[Kevin Pulliam]

This feature will support both electronic collections, etc which do not normally have page numbers in order to determine the proper display sort order in the Publication and Contents display.

Option 1: Impliment a boolean field to change Page Numbers to Sort Order for the publication. When this falg is set to Yes, it will suppress the statement of 'Page Number' and of the order numbers, causing the contents of a collection to display in the proper order.

Option 2: Implement a second number field for all contents. This option will allow order numbers to be entered in addition to, or in the absence of page numbers. This will allow proper ordering of contents of electronic publications which have no page numbers. This option will also allow forcing sorts to cause Interior art that appears on the same page as a story to appear after the story title (since the artwork should appear subordinate to the fiction title). This option will also allow (for those who care) proper ordering of reviews initially entered that appear on the same page. This option will also allow proper ordering of Poetry where multiple title may be on the same page (again, only needed if they are entered initially in the wrong order). This option will also allow a forced sort order to the contents of Ace/Tor/etc Doubles titles. This option will also 'support' the feature request for proper ordering on the 'edit' page of a title. For publications (electronic, audio, etc) which have no page numbers, the proper order is unknown unless documented.

[David E. Siegel]

See somewhat related FR # 2800896 Sort contents records in editpub display

[Ahasuerus]

2014-02-06 update: As per http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal#Ordering_pub_contents , the latest approach is to:

Allow (optionally) appending "sorting" page numbers to the currently defined "displayed" page numbers. To use Regarding Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Solar Pons as an example, the two essays which appear prior to page "1" and which are currently labeled "[7]" and "[11]" would be entered as "[7]|0.1" and "[11]|0.2". They would then appear before "The Adventure of the Frightened Baronet" on page "1" and their displayed page numbers would still be "[7]" and "[11]". In the case of The Metal Man and Others, the illustrations would be numbered something like "plate 1|0.01" through "plate 19|0.1" while the titles currently entered as "iv" and "xv" would be changed to "iv|0.51" and "xv|0.52". And in cases where there are multiple titles per page, they could be entered as "50|50.1", "50|50.2", etc. Of course, if there is no "vertical bar" (or "pipe") character present, then everything will be handled the way it currently is.

[Ahasuerus]

Added the ability to force a sorting order that is different from the order suggested by displayed numbers -- see Help for an explanation. Implemented in:

biblio/pl.py 1.69
common/library.py 1.41
edit/rmtitles.py 1.13
mod/tv_remove.py 1.7

Installed in r2014-94 on 2014-02-19. Closing.