Arranging Categories in order of number of Topics

Feature
1

I’m wondering if it’s ever been on radar to also sort the order of the categories on the main page in order of number of topics?

Example

Category A has 100 topics
Category B has 50 topics
Category C has 20 topics.

Order on main page would be ABC. If C suddenly changes to 120 topics, order would be CAB.

Would it be reasonably achievable? Would a Hysteresis even be possible such that the Categories don’t move around too often?

2

Hi,

I can make a small component if you are interested. To be sure, you are talking about the categories page (/categories), right?

3

That’s a kind offer. However from our side this isn’t necessary enough to purchase as a theme component. I think it would still be a nice feature to have in Discourse generally. I feel like it would be a nice balance between the existing order by latest(which changes the order too often) and a completely fixed layout.

1 Like
4

No, no, for free :slight_smile:.

EDIT:

You can install this script in a theme component.

It arranges the items of the categories list only on the page itself.
This doesn’t affect any template or internal to keep better compatibility.
Depending on your theme, it might require adjustments.

Let me know if it works for you.

js 
<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8">

api.onPageChange((url, title) => {
    const { defaultHomepage } = require('discourse/lib/utilities');

    if (url !== '/categories' && (url !== '/' || defaultHomepage() !== 'categories')) {
        return;
    }
    
    const desktop_category_page_style = api.container.lookup('service:site-settings').desktop_category_page_style;
    
    const sort = ({parent, nodes, selector}) => {
        if (!parent || !nodes.length) {
            return
        }

        Array.from(nodes).sort((a, b) => {
            const valueA = a.querySelector(selector).textContent;
            const valueB = b.querySelector(selector).textContent;
            
            return valueB - valueA;
            
        })
        .forEach(row => parent.appendChild(row));
    }
    
    if (desktop_category_page_style.startsWith('categories')) {
        const parent = document.querySelector('.category-list tbody[aria-labelledby="categories-only-category"]');
        
        sort({
            parent: parent, 
            nodes: parent?.querySelectorAll('tr'), 
            selector: 'td.topics span.value'
        })
    }
    else if (desktop_category_page_style === 'subcategories_with_featured_topics') {
        const childs = document.querySelectorAll('table.category-list');
        
        sort({
            parent: childs[0]?.parentElement, 
            nodes: childs, 
            selector: 'th.parent-category span.value'
        })

    } else {
        // boxes doesn't have a count displayed
    }
});
</script>