Sort the search results on the member search by a custom field

Unfortunately there's not a direct option to list by those fields, see User Script API - List. There is limited logic to perform on-page sorting in Velocity, some capacity in Javascript. However on-page sorting would be limited by paging that is based on a different sort order. You could also expose your own widget extension that could collect all the users from the User In Process API and re-sort them by your desired field. Both the aggregation and the re-sort would be potentially costly operations computationally.

Unknown said:

There is limited logic to perform on-page sorting in Velocity,

What is this logic?

Unknown said:

You could also expose your own widget extension that could collect all the users from the User In Process API and re-sort them by your desired field.

How would I go about this?

when you copy your .dll into Web/bin, also include the .pdb of the same name. Then you can attach to w3wp process in Visual Studio and set a breakpoint in the sort method.

The method is not getting called. I can't figure out why.

It appears to be working now. I am now passing the search results list as an array instead of a list. Thanks.

Unknown said:

Again to reiterate, retrieving all users in this way, especially if you then page results of your new sorted list, is going to be quite expensive. At that point it might be better to set up a custom data store (i.e., your own database table) that keeps your custom fields referenced by userid, and then use the user list API and provide a list of ids via the ContentIds option with SortBy=ContentIdsOrder. Then you can return that pre-paged, pre-sorted list via your widget extension.

Hi Stephen,

Could you please explain this procedure a bit more. What would I pass into my widget extension method, and what would I pass out? What would be the pseudocode for the procedure?

You need a custom table to store whatever you want to sort y and the contentId and any associated code to make your call.  That list of Ids can be passed to the User list  and be returned in the same order.

https://community.telligent.com/community/11/w/api-documentation/63544/userslistoptions-in-process-api-supplementary-type

I am returning the sorted Users list from my widget extension, but the users are no longer being filtered on the Member Search page. How can I get the filtering working again?

There is not enough information here to answer this because we don't know what you did or how anything was implemented.  If the expectation is that you added your own extension to replace a call on that page and it would just work, then that won't be the case.  

Hi,

Here's the C# code:

   public class MyUsers
    {

        public string GetContentIds()
        {
            SqlDataAccess sd = new SqlDataAccess();
            using (SqlCommand cmd = sd.GetCommand("ibby_Get_Sorted_User_Content_Ids"))
            {
                cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
                DataTable dt = sd.Execute(cmd);
                StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
                for (int i = 0; i < dt.Rows.Count; i++)
                {
                    sb.Append(dt.Rows[i]["ContentId"].ToString());
                    if (i != dt.Rows.Count - 1)
                        sb.Append(",");
                }
                return sb.ToString();
            }
        }

        public PagedList<Telligent.Evolution.Extensibility.Api.Entities.Version1.User> GetUsers()
        {
            UsersListOptions options = new UsersListOptions();
            options.ContentIds = GetContentIds();
            options.SortBy = "ContentIdsOrder";
            return Apis.Get<Users>().List(options);
        }

    }

And search.vm

#set($filters = $core_v2_page.GetFormValue('filters'))

## perform search
#set($count = 0)

#set ($searchListOptions = "%{ Query = $searchQuery, Sort = 'titlesort', PageIndex = $pageIndex, PageSize = $pageSize }")
$searchListOptions.Add("Filters", "type::user${filters}")
##set ($searchResults = $core_v2_searchResult.List($searchListOptions))

#set ($searchResults = $!$ibby_v1_UserData.GetUsers())   
## Render Search Results

#set ($hasMore = false)
#set ($currentPagedQuantity = ($searchResults.PageIndex + 1) * $searchResults.PageSize)
#if ($searchResults.TotalCount > $currentPagedQuantity)
	#set ($hasMore = true)
#end

#foreach ($user in $searchResults)
#beforeall

	<div class="content-list thumbnail ui-masonry margin-top" id="$core_v2_encoding.HtmlAttributeEncode($core_v2_widget.UniqueId('thumbnails'))" data-columnclass="thumbnail-column">
#each
	##set ($user = false)
	##foreach ($resultUser in $result.Users)
	##	#set ($user = $resultUser)
	###end

These are 2 completely different methods for getting users so filters are not going to work.  You use the users API, the members page is based on search.  These methods are not interchangeable.

Realistically, you could just use Apis.Get<ISearchIndexing>().Events, handle the BeforeBulkIndex event for users, stuff a custom field in the document for the value you want to sort by and then modify any call the Apis.Get<ISearchResults> to include your custom sort in the query

community.telligent.com/.../searchindexing-in-process-api-service

Realistically, you could just use Apis.Get<ISearchIndexing>().Events, handle the BeforeBulkIndex event for users, stuff a custom field in the document for the value you want to sort by and then modify any call the Apis.Get<ISearchResults> to include your custom sort in the query

community.telligent.com/.../searchindexing-in-process-api-service

How often does the BeforeBulkIndex event get fired in a user's lifecycle? Is it only once? My custom sort field can change quite often, and it might not have a value before the event gets fired. Will that be a problem?

That event gets fired before altered users get changed in the index, which varies by how often the job runs and how many changes need to be processed.  You still will have to store this value somehow and read it when the event is fired

I've attempted to write some code for this. Would this work as a widget extension?

public class MyUsers
    {
        public Telligent.Evolution.Extensibility.Api.Entities.Version1.SearchResults GetUsers(int pageIndex, int pageSize, string filters, string query)
        {
            ISearchResults search = Apis.Get<ISearchResults>();
            var searchOptions = new SearchResultsListOptions
            {
                PageIndex = pageIndex,
                PageSize = pageSize,
                Query = query,
                Filters = filters
            };
            searchOptions.Sort = "UserSortOrder";
            var results = search.List(searchOptions);
            return results;           //Apis.Get<Users>().List(options);

        }

        public void BeforeSearchBulkIndexingEventHandler(BeforeBulkIndexingEventArgs e)
        {
            SearchIndexDocument d = new SearchIndexDocument();
            d.AddField("UserSortOrder", GetSortOrder(d.ContentId));
            e.Documents.Append(d);
        }

        private string GetSortOrder(Guid contentId)
        {
            SqlDataAccess sd = new SqlDataAccess();
            using (SqlCommand cmd = sd.GetCommand("ibby_UserSortOrder_Get"))
            {
                cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ContentId", contentId);
                DataTable dt = sd.Execute(cmd);
                if (dt.Rows.Count > 0)
                    return dt.Rows[0]["UserSortOrder"].ToString();
                else
                    return string.Empty;
            }
        }
    }

You are not longer writing a widget extension.  You are writing a plugin and possibly modifying widget code.  

To which of the SearchIndexDocument Documents should I add the custom sort field? The first, the last, a specific one, or all of them?

You would evaluate them to be of the users content type 

Here's the code for the Plugin that I've written to handle the BeforeBulkIndex event for users. I've copied the DLL to the website's bin folder, and the JobServer folder. Does it look okay? How would I get the event to fire for all the users so that it would update all the users?

using Telligent.Evolution.Extensibility;
using Telligent.Evolution.Extensibility.Api.Entities.Version1;
using Telligent.Evolution.Extensibility.Api.Version1;

namespace UserData
{
    public class UserDataPlugin : Telligent.Evolution.Extensibility.Version1.IPlugin
    {
        public string Name
        {
            get { return "UserDataPlugin"; }
        }

        public string Description
        {
            get { return "User Data Plugin"; }
        }


        public void Initialize()
        {
            Apis.Get<ISearchIndexing>().Events.BeforeBulkIndex += new BeforeSearchBulkIndexingEventHandler(UpdateSortOrder_BeforeBulkIndex);
        }

        private void UpdateSortOrder_BeforeBulkIndex(BeforeBulkIndexingEventArgs e)
        {
            UsersGetOptions o = new UsersGetOptions();
            var i = Apis.Get<IUsers>();
            foreach (SearchIndexDocument d in e.Documents)
            {
                o.ContentId = d.ContentId;
                var u = i.Get(o);
                if (u != null)
                {
                    d.AddField("UserSortOrder", u.ExtendedAttributes["SortOrder"].Value);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Here's where I change the sort order in search.vm. Is this correct?

#set ($searchListOptions = "%{ Query = $searchQuery, Sort = 'UserSortOrder', PageIndex = $pageIndex, PageSize = $pageSize }")

In 11.1+, you can go to Administration > Site > Search, view the Include tab, uncheck "Users", Save, recheck "Users", and Save again. This will reindex users.

Thanks ALL: This is working now. However, I'd like to take it one step further -

How can I sort the user search results by two fields?

Also, how can I exclude some users from being included in the index?

Unknown said:

How can I sort the user search results by two fields?

The sort can be specified as "FIELD DIRECTION,FIELD DIRECTION,...' where FIELD is the name of the field to sort on and DIRECTION is 'asc' or 'desc'

Unknown said:

Also, how can I exclude some users from being included in the index?

Users can be excluded by disabling the user's "include in search" option in their settings.