Skip to main content

Sort Order of View Included in URL

Carlyn Manly

URLWhen a view’s sort order is adjusted, the new sort order becomes visible in the address bar of the browser.  The advantage of this is that when the user bookmarks this URL, the sort order is included in the bookmark.  Each time the user subsequently uses this bookmark, the view that opens is sorted in the same way as when it was bookmarked.

The example below shows a view with people records which ‘Site’ column was pressed to sort it.

Sort order of view specified in the URL of the browser's address bar

Let’s geek out a little and break down the URL that is visible in the browser’s address bar to understand its components:

  • widget.4me.comThis part of the URL takes the user to the 4me account of the Widget International organization.  The subdomain ‘widget’ was chosen by this fictitious organization.  The domain ‘4me.com’ points to the production environment of the 4me service.
  • peopleThe views that list the Person records can be found in the Records console. Adding ‘/people’ to the URL of a 4me account takes the user straight to the people views in the Records console.
  • sort_idx=site_nameThis specifies that the view is sorted by site; specifically by the text entered in the Name field of the Site records that are linked to the Person records that are listed in the view.
  • sort_dir=desThis part of the URL specifies that the sort direction is ‘Descending’, which is the opposite to ‘asc’ which stands for ‘Ascending’.
  • vstate=enabledThe ‘vstate’ component dictates which state button is pressed above the view.  In this example it is the Enabled button.  The other option for this view is ‘disabled’ which would cause the Disabled button to be selected.
  • q=The ‘q=’ parameter is used at the start of the query or keywords that were entered into the Search box to filter the view.  In this example no text was entered in the Search box.
  • vname=allWhen there are multiple views to choose from, the ‘vname’ component is used to select one of these views.  In this example ‘all’ means that the ‘All People’ view is selected.
  • vlayout=tableThe only layout that can currently be selected for a view is the ‘table’ presentation.  The only exception can be found in the Inbox view where the option ‘list’ is also available.  The ‘list’ layout provides multiple lines of information from each record.