Can't sort list of Users by Name

[bobonwhidbey]

This bug has been around a long time, but it must be such a low priority that no one has addressed it. On the List of Users in the Dashboard, there are four columns labeled User, Name, E-Mail, and Role. The sort feature (both up and down) works for 3 of the columns, but not for the Name column. When clicking to sort on the Name column, it always sorts by User.

[jesin]

I was able to reproduce this issue.

When users are sorted by the Name column the following arguments are passed to WP_User_Query.

$args = array(
	'number' => 20,
	'offset' => 0,
	'role' => '',
	'search' => '',
	'fields' => 'all_with_meta',
	'orderby' => 'name',
	'order' => desc
);

Here 'orderby' => 'name' is the same as username.

I have ​ a patch that sets the orderby to meta_value and meta_key to first_name but if the First Name field is empty and the Last Name filled this bug appears again.

[chriscct7]

Can't replicate

[jesin]

I'm able to replicate even on the latest trunk.

Create the following users

Username	Name
abc	ZZ
def	AA
xyz	XX

Now when you sort by the Name column it gets sorted by the username.

[rachelbaker]

Stops the Name column from appearing sortable

[rachelbaker]

@jesin is correct about the cause of this bug, but I am not convinced we can sort Users in an expected manner when the single "Name" column is actually a combination of two optional values (first_name + last_name).

Instead I propose in 28064.patch​ we stop pretending that the "Name" column is sortable at all. I would like other opinions here.

[boonebgorges]

Wow, how annoying - I'd always assumed that this column showed display_name, but it is concatenating fn+ln. I don't think there's going to be a way to make this sorting work without doing some truly terrible things with usermeta joins, so +1 to 28064.patch​

[ocean90]

+1 to 28064.patch​.

[rachelbaker]

In 37314:

Users: Remove the “Name” column of the Users table from appearing sortable.

The “Name” column of the Users WP List Table is not sortable because this column displays a concatenation of two optional values, first_name and last_name. Even if WP_User_Query supported ordering queries in this manner, the resulting sequence would be chaotic.

Fixes #28064.

Props jesin, and rachelbaker.