Sorting Groups according to the list

[armindarvish]

This is continuing discussion from consult-web's async branch on how to get better sorting of different groups.

here is a link to discussion from consult-web: armindarvish/consult-web#29

[dasoju]

wondering if there is a solution
iam using consult-omni with mdfind as source and the the results show the old files first
I was wondering if i can get the newest files first

[armindarvish]

@dasoju The ordering you are referring to is controlled by mdfind and not consult-omni. But, you can define a transform (or filter) function and reverse the order of results like this:

(defun consult-omni--mdfind-transform (candidates &optional _query)
  "Reverse the order of CANDIDATES from `consult-omni-mdfind'."
  (nreverse candidates))

and then redefine the mdfind source with that function as transform/filter:

(consult-omni-define-source "mdfind"
                            :narrow-char ?f
                            :category 'file
                            :type 'async
                            :require-match t
                            :face 'consult-omni-engine-title-face
                            :request #'consult-omni--mdfind-builder
                            :transform #'consult-omni--mdfind-transform
                            :on-preview #'consult-omni--mdfind-preview
                            :on-return #'identity
                            :on-callback #'consult-omni--mdfind-callback
                            :preview-key consult-omni-preview-key
                            :search-hist 'consult-omni--search-history
                            :select-hist 'consult-omni--selection-history
                            :group #'consult-omni--group-function
                            :enabled (lambda () (executable-find "mdfind"))
                            :sort nil
                            :interactive consult-omni-intereactive-commands-type
                            :annotate nil)

[Gleek]

Continuing the discussion from #42

In short, the order of the items are determined by the order they arrive. Local sources tend to return results faster than web requests. In addition, web requests results often arrive in chunks, so sometimes the first few results from a web source arrive early but the remaining arrive later after other sources. Because of the way grouping works in a multi-source, these results are added to their own group, which makes it look like things are jumping around.

This is what I suspected. To experiment with this I added a timer before a 'dynamic source would do a callback. My expectation was that since the results would be sent later for that source, the group would appear lower in the list. It instead, pushed it self to the top once the results arrived. Infact, it seemed to not matter when the results arrive for my new source, it always was on top.

Here's the code to replicate:

(cl-defun consult-omni--test-results(input &rest args &key callback &allow-other-keys)

    (defvar consult-omni--test-timer nil)
    (when consult-omni--test-timer
      (cancel-timer consult-omni--test-timer))
    (let ((entries `(,(propertize "test 1" :source "Test")
                     ,(propertize "test 2" :source "Test"))))
      (setq consult-omni--test-timer (run-with-timer 2 nil callback  entries))
      nil))

(consult-omni-define-source "Testing"
                            :type 'dynamic
                            :require-match t
                            :face 'default
                            :request #'consult-omni--test-results
                            :on-return #'ignore
                            :on-preview #'ignore
                            :on-callback #'ignore
                            :enabled (lambda () t)
                            :group #'consult-omni--group-function)

(let ((consult-omni-multi-sources '("Apps" "Testing")))
  (consult-omni-multi))

Making it return first, by removing the timer and pairing it with a slower source, such as fd, also keeps it on the top position.

[armindarvish]

@Gleek That's a bit confusing. I need to find some time to dig into it, but when I tested it, I turned grouping off by "-- :g nil" and I could see that everything was ordered by the order they arrived.

Personally, I tend to use =vertico-next-group= in multi-source searches to quickly find the source I am interested in, rather than relying on the order of sources.