Preparing for improved sorting of assets

Improved sorting in Smart Folders and Asset Blocks

In the upcoming February 2021 release, we will introduce a change in how assets are sorted in Smart Folders and Pages Asset Blocks. This change has two benefits:

• Sellers will see assets in a more logical and structured way, allowing faster access to what they need
• Assets will display faster as a result of fewer database queries in the background 

The current way of sorting

As an administrator, you upload assets to your Content Library. The assets are then populated automatically in Smart Folders or in Asset Blocks on a Page when a filter is used. The order in which these assets are currently shown for sellers is calculated based on the filename, lower and uppercase, and the file extension (.PDF, .MOV, ...)

Introducing improved sorting

We will improve the sorting of assets, so it not only enhances performance but also allows more consistency for what sellers see. Below, you see the rules we will start using.
As an administrator, you can use these rules to define in what order assets will be displayed for users. Improved sorting is based on:

• Case-insensitive sorting.
         ("a" = "A")
• Characters and symbols displayed first and then filenames that start with a digit.
         ("Asset.PDF" will be displayed before "1Asset.PDF")
• Digits are grouped together and then sorted numerically.
         ("1Asset.PDF", "2Asset.PDF" will be displayed before "10Asset.PDF")

Differences between the current and updated sorting

Here are a few examples to make clear how the sorting of assets in Smart Folders and Pages Asset Blocks will change. The first column in each example shows how assets are currently sorted, and the second column shows the new and improved way assets will be sorted.

Example 1

A filename that starts with 0 will be ordered before 1 and not before any letter. You will notice that symbols and characters will be displayed first as well.

Example 2

Digits will be used for sorting, even with prefixes. 

Example 3

Versioning-like text in filenames is sorted consistently, based on the character and digits rules mentioned above.