timetracker/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-21-list-view-sort-param-design.md

Honor sort/direction query params on list views (#68)

Problem

The stats page (#65) adds "View all (N) →" links from its sorted lists to the filtered list views. The list views (list_games, list_sessions, list_purchases) hardcode order_by(...) and ignore any sort parameter, so a "view all" link lands on the right set of rows but not in the same order the stats page showed.

FindFilter (in games/filters.py) already models sort / direction but is never parsed or applied anywhere.

Hardcoded orders today:

• games/views/game.py:59 — Game.objects.order_by("-created_at")
• games/views/session.py:122 — Session.objects.order_by("-timestamp_start", "created_at")
• games/views/purchase.py:122 — Purchase.objects.order_by("-date_purchased", "-created_at")

Goal

Make all three list views honor a sort query param (a signed comma-list of column keys), with every visible column sortable plus the aggregate sorts the stats page needs for "view all" parity (games-by-playtime, finish-date). Backend only — no clickable header UI in this issue (tracked in #73).

Scope decisions (from brainstorming)

• Sortable set: all visible list columns, plus stats-parity aggregates (playtime, finish date) even where they are not visible columns.
• UI: backend only. Honor the query param; do not add clickable column headers. File a follow-up issue for the header UI.
• URL contract: a single signed comma-list of public keys — ?sort=-playtime,name. The - attaches to the public key and sets that key's direction; the whitelist still maps the key to its internal expression+annotation. Bare key = ascending (Django semantics, no hidden per-key defaults); leading - = descending. Rationale: natural multi-column, one param, each term self-describes direction, mirrors Django order_by, and is forward-compatible to multi-column with zero contract change.
• Multi-column: the backend parses and applies the full term list now (server-side multi-column works immediately). Only the UI that generates multi-term URLs (clickable headers, shift-click to add a column) is deferred to the follow-up issue.
• Default ordering: since bare keys are ascending and signs are explicit, each view's default order is itself just a default signed sort string parsed by the same machinery — no separate default_direction field, no per-key tiebreak concept.
• Module: new games/sorting.py (keeps the already-large filters.py focused; imports FindFilter from it).
• Purchase name sort: annotated Min("games__name") — one row per purchase, no M2M duplication.

Prerequisite: fix N+1 queries on list rows

The list querysets currently have no select_related/prefetch_related, so each rendered row lazy-loads its relations. The sort work touches these exact querysets (and adds aggregate annotations), so the eager-loading fix lands here:

• list_games — Game.objects.select_related("platform") (icon via NameWithIcon).
• list_sessions — Session.objects.select_related("game", "game__platform", "device").
• list_purchases — Purchase.objects.prefetch_related("games", "games__platform") (M2M rendered by LinkedPurchase; confirm games__platform need during impl).

These are added to the base queryset (before filtering/annotating), so they compose with apply_sort's annotations.

Design

URL contract

?sort=<signed-key>[,<signed-key>...] on list_games, list_sessions, list_purchases. Examples: ?sort=-playtime, ?sort=status,name, ?sort=-date,created.

• Each term is a public key, optionally prefixed -. Bare = ascending; - = descending (Django order_by semantics).
• Terms whose key is not in the model's map are ignored, and a user-facing warning toast is shown ("Unknown sort field '' was ignored.") — never a 400. Any remaining valid terms still apply; the page renders normally.
• If sort is absent, empty, or has no valid terms → the view's default sort string is used (parsed by the same machinery).
• Invalid values never raise.

The warning surfaces drift (e.g. a #65 "view all" link with a stale/typo'd key) without breaking a user-facing, hand-editable URL. It rides the existing messages→toast path: render_page() serializes get_messages(request) into the #django-messages JSON block (common/layout.py) and toast.js renders it — works on a full-page GET, which is what #65 links are. No new plumbing.

sorting.py itself stays HTTP-free: it reports unknown keys; the view emits the messages.warning.

Pagination already preserves the param: _page_url (in common/components/primitives.py) copies request.GET and only replaces page.

games/sorting.py

Named string roles (PEP 695 transparent aliases — requires-python >=3.13). They read like TS type X = string: no runtime cost, no wrapping ceremony, but each str in a signature now says which string it is:

from django.db.models import Aggregate

type SortKey = str         # public column key in a *_SORTS map and in a URL term ("playtime", "name")
type SortString = str      # comma-list of signed SortKeys: the URL ?sort= value and *_DEFAULT_SORT ("-date,created")
type AnnotationName = str  # an alias added via .annotate(), then referenced by SortSpec.expression
type OrderField = str      # SortSpec.expression: a real model field path OR an AnnotationName

# alias name -> the ORM aggregate that computes it, applied via queryset.annotate()
# e.g. {"total_playtime": Sum("sessions__duration_total")}
type Annotations = dict[AnnotationName, Aggregate]

@dataclass(frozen=True)
class SortSpec:
    expression: OrderField           # unsigned; a real column path or an AnnotationName
    annotate: Annotations | None = None

All current sorts use Aggregate subclasses (Sum/Max/Min); if a non-aggregate annotation (F, ExpressionWrapper) is ever needed, widen Annotations' value to Combinable then.

Direction is never stored on the spec — it comes from the sign in the URL term. Cross-relation sorts use annotated aggregates (Sum/Max/Min), which group by the model PK and therefore produce no duplicate rows. Bare order_by("relation__field") is never used for to-many relations.

Per-model maps + default sort strings

All three maps are typed SortMap (dict[SortKey, SortSpec]); each *_DEFAULT_SORT is a SortString.

GAME_SORTS — GAME_DEFAULT_SORT = "-created":

key	expression	annotate
name	name	—
sort_name	sort_name	—
year	year_released	—
status	status	—
wikidata	wikidata	—
created	created_at	—
playtime	total_playtime	Sum("sessions__duration_total")
finished	last_finished	Max("playevents__ended")

SESSION_SORTS — SESSION_DEFAULT_SORT = "-date,created" (reproduces today's order_by("-timestamp_start", "created_at")):

key	expression	annotate
name	game__sort_name	— (to-one; safe)
date	timestamp_start	—
duration	duration_total	—
device	device__name	— (to-one; safe)
created	created_at	—

PURCHASE_SORTS — PURCHASE_DEFAULT_SORT = "-purchased,-created" (reproduces today's order_by("-date_purchased", "-created_at")):

key	expression	annotate
name	first_game_name	Min("games__name")
type	type	—
price	converted_price	—
infinite	infinite	—
purchased	date_purchased	—
refunded	date_refunded	—
created	created_at	—
finished	last_finished	Max("games__playevents__ended")

game__sort_name / device__name are to-one relations — no duplication, so no annotation needed. The finished purchase key gives the stats "view all" finish-date parity. Model field names confirmed against games/models.py: infinite, converted_price, date_purchased, date_refunded, type; session duration_total is a GeneratedField (orderable).

Term parsing

class SortTerm(NamedTuple):
    key: SortKey
    descending: bool      # True = "-key" (desc), False = bare key (asc)

type SortMap = dict[SortKey, SortSpec]

class ParsedSort(NamedTuple):
    terms: list[SortTerm]
    unknown: list[SortKey]   # keys not in the map — the view turns these into warnings

def parse_sort_terms(raw: SortString, sort_map: SortMap) -> ParsedSort:
    terms, unknown = [], []
    for token in raw.split(","):
        token = token.strip()
        if not token:
            continue
        descending = token.startswith("-")
        key = token.lstrip("-")
        if key in sort_map:
            terms.append(SortTerm(key, descending))
        else:
            unknown.append(key)
    return ParsedSort(terms, unknown)

Apply helper

class SortResult(NamedTuple):
    queryset: QuerySet
    terms: list[SortTerm]    # the order actually applied — #73's header UI consumes this
    unknown: list[SortKey]   # rejected keys — the view turns these into warning toasts

def apply_sort(
    queryset: QuerySet, find: FindFilter, sort_map: SortMap, default_sort: SortString
) -> SortResult:
    terms, unknown = parse_sort_terms(find.sort or "", sort_map)
    if not terms:
        # default_sort is trusted developer config — ignore any "unknown" from it
        terms, _ = parse_sort_terms(default_sort, sort_map)
    annotations: Annotations = {}
    order_by: list[OrderField] = []
    for term in terms:
        spec = sort_map[term.key]
        if spec.annotate:
            annotations.update(spec.annotate)
        order_by.append(("-" if term.descending else "") + spec.expression)
    if annotations:
        queryset = queryset.annotate(**annotations)
    return SortResult(queryset.order_by(*order_by), terms, unknown)

The full term list is applied (server-side multi-column). SortResult.terms is what the future header UI (#73) consumes; SortResult.unknown is what the view turns into warning toasts.

FindFilter parsing

def parse_find_filter(request: HttpRequest) -> FindFilter:
    return FindFilter(sort=request.GET.get("sort") or None)  # FindFilter.sort holds a SortString

FindFilter.direction is not used by #68 — direction lives in the sign of each sort term, not a separate field. Nothing serializes it today (the FilterPreset.find_filter JSONField is currently unpopulated; FindFilter has no JSON round-trip), so #68 leaves the field untouched rather than churn it. Whether to remove it or formally wire it is decided in #74. Page / per_page likewise stay with paginate(); not wired into FindFilter now (YAGNI, #74).

View wiring (×3)

In each list view, remove the hardcoded .order_by(...) from the base queryset and, after filtering and before paginate():

find = parse_find_filter(request)
sort = apply_sort(games, find, GAME_SORTS, GAME_DEFAULT_SORT)  # sort: SortResult
games = sort.queryset
for key in sort.unknown:
    messages.warning(request, f"Unknown sort field '{key}' was ignored.")

(session.py / purchase.py analogous with their maps + default sort strings.)

Testing

tests/test_sorting.py:

• Default order unchanged for each model when no sort param is present (regression guard against the removed hardcoded order_by — the default sort string must reproduce the old order exactly).
• Each key in each map sorts ascending (bare) and descending (- prefix).
• Multi-column term list applies in order (e.g. ?sort=status,name).
• Unknown keys are reported in SortResult.unknown; the view emits a messages.warning per unknown key (assert on get_messages). A valid key emits none.
• An all-invalid/empty sort falls back to the default sort string.
• A mixed ?sort=-playtime,bogus both sorts by playtime and warns on bogus.
• Annotated sorts (game playtime, game/purchase finish date, purchase name) return no duplicate rows (count equals unsorted count).
• parse_sort_terms unit tests: signs, whitespace, empty tokens, unknown keys.
• Smoke: ?sort=<key> and ?sort=-key,key URLs return 200 for each list view.

Coordination with #65

#65 (stats "view all" links, still unmerged) generates URLs that pass sort=. Those links must use the same public sort keys defined in this spec's maps (playtime, finished, etc.). When #65 and #68 both land, verify each "view all" link's sort= matches a key in the target model's *_SORTS map and reproduces the stats list's order. Call this out in the #68 PR description.

Related follow-ups (filed during design review)

• #73 — clickable sortable column headers + multi-column UI (consumes SortResult.terms).
• #74 — make FindFilter the single request parser (sort + pagination + free-text); fixes the paginate() 10-vs-25 / limit-vs-per_page mismatch.
• #75 — purchase list free-text search parity.
• #76 — extract a shared list_view helper across the three list views.
• #77 — saved filter presets should persist/restore sort (FilterPreset.find_filter).

Out of scope (follow-up issue)

Clickable sortable column headers (asc/desc indicator, toggle on click) and the multi-column UI affordance (shift-click to add a column → multi-term ?sort= URL). The backend apply_sort already returns SortResult.terms and applies the full term list, so this is UI-only work. Tracked in #73.