Sort Profiles using Attributes Stopped Working with Latest Update

[dkorman]

Mario,

I updated to iMatch 2021.15.2 yesterday and noted that, for the first time in over several years of updates, this update appears to have, for me, failed to sort properly for custom profiles based on Attributes.  Failure to sort happens for both previously defined custom profiles and new ones I created.  Other sort profiles appear to work correctly.

Please let me know if there is any more information that might be helpful.

Thanks,
David

[akirot]

Sort profiles based on attributes work perfectly in my environment - especially with respect to the fixed bug (IMatch 2021.15.2) concerning negative numerical attributes.
(I remember sometimes switching sort profiles helps to trigger the wanted sort order - in my case these are exceptions which I don't perceive as a bug.)

[Mario]

Please let me know if there is any more information that might be helpful.

Works here.
Please explain your Attribute setup (data type, contents), explain what sort profile you use, which sort order you see in the File Window, which sort order you would expect.

[dkorman]

Mario,
Thank you for your quick response.

I have a single global attribute set populated with 19 fields (which I created long ago and I now see could be reduced), all of type text.  The database has 423,250 files.

In testing across most of my folders (Media & Folders), it appears that the sorting works correctly, as expected and as it always has, in most folders.  I don't see anything particularly different in the problem folders in terms of the type of files, the number of files, or the number of subfolders.

The Sort Profile is on two Attribute fields, and in the problem folders, the returning files are randomly sorted (I also use a custom File Layout which includes the sort fields).  Prior to the update, I experienced no issues in this area.

In addition, files with and Attribute record but with the sort fields blank used to sort to the top of the sort order - they now sort to the bottom.  If I change ascending to descending, these records with empty sort fields still sort to the bottom.

I have rescanned the problem folders, run Database Diagnostics and restarted iMatch, but the problem folders still don't sort correctly.

I'm going to export and reimport the Attributes to see if this fixes the problem.  I'll get back to you on the results.

Thanks,
David

[Mario]

It would be helpful to know what the Attributes in the affected folders contain.
You can use the Copy Data App with the variables for the sort Attributes you use to copy the data for one or more files into the clipboard. Save to a text file and attach or send to my support email address email, with a link back to this topic.

I don't see how the change I did for numerical Attribute values could change the sort result for other data. But that does not mean that this is could not be caused by an unexpected side effect of that change.

If I can reproduce this problem here by creating the same Attributes you have and fill them with the same data, I can see what the problem is and fix it.

[dkorman]

Sorry for the delayed response.

A combination of large database (covering almost 425,000 files) and an Attribute export file of 425 meg., combined with other work, have made progress slow.  I'm trying to target the problem on my end to see if the problem attribute files were cause by me (as part of an automated process).

When I Exported and imported Attributes, some of the issues improved/changed - mostly for the better, but some problems remain:

1) the problem folders from before seem to now sort correctly (yeah!)
2) a few folders have 1-20 files sorting to the bottom, even though the primary sort field is populated
3) files with blank sort Attribute fields sort to the bottom (they used to sort to the top)
4) three particular folders with many subfolders are sorting randomly

I'm going to see if "Repair" on a backup copy of the database will have any benefit.

[Mario]

I will do some tests on my end. It's Sunday, I shall have an hour or two in the evening.

[Mario]

This issue has been resolved for the next regular release.
If the conditions where just right, the sort did not consider some edge cases for Attributes and failed.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[dkorman]

Mario,

Thank you, as always.

David