Preparing for improved sorting of assets

Improved sorting in Smart Folders and Asset Blocks

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

• Sellers see assets in a more logical and structured way, allowing faster access to what they need
• Assets display faster

Introducing improved sorting

We improved 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 started 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 previous and the updated sorting

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

Example 2

Digits are 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.