Admin change list doesn't redirect to default ordering when the last ordering field is removed from sorting

[ldeluigi]

Basically, when an admin maually clicks on the sortremove link of the last remaining field in the sorting query variable, the redirect points to an empty string.

For example, if the query parameter is the default o, the redirect points to /?o=, which results in the change list not being ordered at all. Instead, I'm claiming that users would expect to see the same ordering they experience when landing on the change list page in the first place, which was the default ordering, only visible when the ordering parameter is absent from the sortremove query.

For this reason, I'd like the sortremove to redirect to / instead of /?o= when the last ordering field would be removed.

I'm opening a PR that *should* do the job: ​https://github.com/django/django/pull/18558

[ldeluigi]

added link to pr

[Sarah Boyce]

For example, if the query parameter is the default o, the redirect points to /?o=, which results in the change list not being ordered at all.

To me, the change list is ordered with the default ordering. The columns "appear" to have no ordering applied which might cause confusion. But I also think the suggested change makes the UI confusing as you are not able to "remove" the ordering in the UI when you have it ordered by one column, click to toggle it off, and the page reloads without any changes to the UI.

I don't think there is a clear bug here, and currently prefer the way it is.

Your PR would need a test which might help clarify the expected behavior

[ldeluigi]

To me, the change list is ordered with the default ordering.

It's not: I've defined default ordering in my model's Meta class, like this:

    ...
    class Meta:
        ....
        ordering = [
            models.Case(
                models.When(status='D', then=models.Value(0)),
                models.When(status='N', then=models.Value(1)),
                ...,
                default=models.Value(10),
            ),
            '-created'
        ]

If I navigate to the admin change list page, without query parameters in the URL, I see that the ordering is applied to the results.

Instead, if I navigate to .../?o= I see a totally different ordering being applied.

By enabling the debugger, I can see that the latter sorts by id descending and doesn't honor the ordering of the model's meta class. This is caused by the behaviour of _get_deterministic_ordering on the ChangeList class, which receives an empty list because the get_ordering method overwrites the default ordering with an empty list whenever the ORDER_VAR is passed in params.

Reference: ​https://github.com/django/django/blob/cdbd31960e0cf41063b3efac97292ee0ccc262bb/django/contrib/admin/views/main.py#L385

[ldeluigi]

Another option would be to keep the default ordering even when /?o= is passed. This would mean that changing the url of the sortremove link is not necessary anymore, as it would make that case behave the same as /?

[Sarah Boyce]

Thank you for the clarification

Have a test and an alternative patch. Needs testing in the admin but I think I've replicated the behavior here

django/contrib/admin/views/main.py

@@ -395 +395 @@
         ordering = list(
             self.model_admin.get_ordering(request) or self._get_default_ordering()
         )
-        if ORDER_VAR in params:
+        if ORDER_VAR in params and params[ORDER_VAR]:
             # Clear ordering and used params
             ordering = []
             order_params = params[ORDER_VAR].split(".")

tests/admin_changelist/tests.py

@@ -1375 +1375 @@
         OrderedObjectAdmin.ordering = ["id", "bool"]
         check_results_order(ascending=True)
 
+    def test_ordering_from_model_meta(self):
+        Swallow.objects.create(origin="Swallow A", load=4, speed=2)
+        Swallow.objects.create(origin="Swallow B", load=2, speed=1)
+        Swallow.objects.create(origin="Swallow C", load=5, speed=1)
+        m = SwallowAdmin(Swallow, custom_site)
+        request = self._mocked_authenticated_request("/swallow/?o=", self.superuser)
+        changelist = m.get_changelist_instance(request)
+        queryset = changelist.get_queryset(request)
+        self.assertQuerySetEqual(
+            queryset,
+            [(1.0, 2.0), (1.0, 5.0), (2.0, 4.0)],
+            lambda s: (s.speed, s.load),
+        )
+
     @isolate_apps("admin_changelist")
     def test_total_ordering_optimization(self):
         class Related(models.Model):

[ldeluigi]

Implemented the requested patch at ​PR

[Sarah Boyce <42296566+sarahboyce@…>]

In 2a4321ba:

Fixed #35747 -- Used default ordering when the ORDER_VAR param is blank in the admin changelist.