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Latest post by nicholas on Friday, 15 September 2023 01:16 CDT
Hello,
I have observed that when creating a new ticket, the custom field groups are ordered based on the "Sort Order". See attachment.
However, when viewing an existing ticket I do not understand how the field groups are ordered. It isn't alphabetical or by ID. See attachment 2.
Can you provide clarification and let me know if it is possible to change the sort order?
Thanks,
So, custom fields are actually handled by Joomla itself. The “System - Fields” plugin returns the jcfields object which has all fields for the ticket in the correct display order. We then remove fields which must not be displayed (they are restricted to a language other than the current one, they are set to not display in the frontend, or they have ATS Private set but the user is not authorised to see private fields) without changing their order. Finally, we call Joomla's \Joomla\Component\Fields\Administrator\Helper\FieldsHelper::render() method which converts the jcfields object to HTML we can display.
Reading the code of Joomla's FieldsHelper I figured out the way fields group ordering works. It looked insane, so I asked my wife who is one of a handful of people with vast experience using custom fields without being a backend developer. I was right. The ordering of groups is insane.
It is defined by the fields order.
Let's say you have the following fields, to be displayed in this order:
The groups order is:
The groups are sorted in the order fields belonging in them are encountered.
Even better? The actual group information (group ID, ordering information, …) is NOT part of the jcfields object returned by the System - Fields plugin. Therefore, even if we wanted to somehow change Joomla's awkward behaviour using custom code we can't.
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!
So, custom fields are actually handled by Joomla itself. The “System - Fields” plugin returns the jcfields object which has all fields for the ticket in the correct display order. We then remove fields which must not be displayed (they are restricted to a language other than the current one, they are set to not display in the frontend, or they have ATS Private set but the user is not authorised to see private fields) without changing their order. Finally, we call Joomla's \Joomla\Component\Fields\Administrator\Helper\FieldsHelper::render() method which converts the jcfields object to HTML we can display.
Reading the code of Joomla's FieldsHelper I figured out the way fields group ordering works. It looked insane, so I asked my wife who is one of a handful of people with vast experience using custom fields without being a backend developer. I was right. The ordering of groups is insane.
It is defined by the fields order.
Let's say you have the following fields, to be displayed in this order:
The groups order is:
The groups are sorted in the order fields belonging in them are encountered.
Even better? The actual group information (group ID, ordering information, …) is NOT part of the jcfields object returned by the System - Fields plugin. Therefore, even if we wanted to somehow change Joomla's awkward behaviour using custom code we can't.
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!
Nicholas,
Well perhaps it's true that igonrance is bliss.
So it seems like my workaround is to order the fields so that they are sorted in the way I want the Field Groups ordered?
I will give this a try.
Thanks as always!
Eric
Correct. You need to sort the fields to affect the group order.
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!
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