How to get the KB Category Page widget to sort the Knowledge Articles based on the Short Description

[jlaue]

Hello - 

When I use the KB - Categories - KBv3 Widget in Service Portal and click on a specific Knowledge Base category, it appears to be sorting the articles on the articles category, on the KB Category Page widget.  I was wondering if there was a way that I could get these articles to sort/order on the Short Description of the Knowledge Article instead of the current way it is sorting. 

I am not sure if this sort is controlled in the KB Categories - KBv3 widget or if it is happening in the KB Category Page widget, and how I can update this.  The SC Categories widget and SC Category Page widget are properly sorting on the name of the Catalog Item, I was hoping to achieve a similar result with the KB widgets.  

Thanks!

[Carl Fransen1]

Hi All,

I know there is a solution for this, but yesterday I found another solution as well, slightly shorter.

We still update the OOTB widget 'KB Category Page' to create a copy and re-point your container to the new widget. 

In the 'Client Controller' script just add lines 6-9 to the script, the section that starts with the comment, see below:

function ($scope, $rootScope, $timeout, spKBCategoryService) {
	var accessWordCountMax = 15;
	var c = this;
	init();
	
	// opus change - sort documents by title name
	c.data.items.sort(function (a, b) {
		return a.title.localeCompare(b.title);
	});
	
	c.getShortenText = function getShortenText(text) {
		var wordsArray = text.split(" ");
		if (wordsArray.length > accessWordCountMax)
			wordsArray = wordsArray.slice(0, accessWordCountMax);
		return wordsArray.join(" ");
	}

and that's it, works great!

I'm trying to get this working on the 'server script' so it's not run on the client side, if I find a solution I'll update this thread.

Hope this helps someone.

[Carl Fransen1]

ALso Seth assisted me with code to get the Category sort working on the 'Server Script' so it doesn't run on the client side.

Check out the community article below:

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=f1838365dbd8dbc01dcaf3231f96...

Cheers

Carl.

[Carl Fransen1]

I have a slightly better solution - this runs on the server script, not the client controller, so it runs server side and won't impact the client loading times.

Server script for 'KB Category Page' is:

//CJF 17-05-18 Opus - Updated code to sort documents by title to run server side
  data.items.sort(function(a,b) {
		// below code works, but localCompare will work for all locales/languages
	  //return (a.title.toLowerCase() > b.title.toLowerCase()) ? 1 : ((b.title.toLowerCase() > a.title.toLowerCase()) ? -1 : 0);
	  return a.title.localeCompare(b.title);
	});

both lines starting with 'return' will work, but as per the comments the localCompare provides more handling cases for language/locale.

Server script for 'KB Categories V3' is:

//CJF 17/05/18 Opus new code to sort the Categories alphabetically by label name
	data.categories.sort(function(a,b) {
		// below code works, but localCompare will work for all locales/languages
		   //return (a.label.toLowerCase() > b.label.toLowerCase()) ? 1 : ((b.label.toLowerCase() > a.label.toLowerCase()) ? -1 : 0);
		return a.label.localeCompare(b.label);
	});

Hope this helps!

[Jack]

Hi @Carl Fransen,

Your solution is good performance, and I agree array should be sorted at server-side instead of client-side.

I have enhanced code for this widget:

1. Clone KB Category Page widget (example: KB Category Page v1.0)
2. Update Server-script code as below (append code):
   

   /****************sorting list article**********************/
   data.sortBy = options.sortBy || "short_description";
   data.sortDesc = options.sortDesc == "true" || false;
   
   data.items = sortArticles(data.items,data.sortBy,data.sortDesc);
   
   function sortArticles(arr,field,desc){
   	try{
   		arr.sort(function(a, b) {
   			var compare = a[field].localeCompare(b[field]);
   			if(desc){
   				if(compare == 1){
   					compare = -1;
   				}
   				else{
   					compare = 1;
   				}
   			}
   			return compare;
   		});
   	}catch(err){
   		console.log("***ERROR: " + err);
   	}
   	return arr;
   }​

3. Go to  kb_category page and replace OOB widget by new widget
4. Open instance widget and add some options:
   
   Note: currently, sort method is only supported for string
   "sortBy" {String}: field name which you want to sort (example: number,title,short_description...)
   "sortDesc" {Bool}: 'true' if you want to desc sort

Hope this is useful.

[jlaue]

Hi Jack/Carl - 

I was wondering if one of you would be able to help me with a similar issue with a different widget.  I posted this on:

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=9e5dbfc4dbde57004816f3231f96...

Thanks so much!!

J