Ordering of files in ERA objects

[seanluyk]

Describe the bug
Not sure if this is a bug or expected behaviour, but for multi-file objects deposited in ERA, files don't seem to be listed in an expected order (in the order they were deposited). A staff member noticed this when depositing this item: https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-n262-a586. Apparently they were depositing them in alphabetic order, but the order was not maintained once the deposit was completed

Expected behavior
Files deposited appear in the order the user deposited them or default if alphabetic order

[lagoan]

This is the expected behaviour from the system's point of view, although weird for end users.

Files are attached when they are finished being uploaded, not when they are added to the interface for upload. So if multiple files are added at the same time, the smaller files will be uploaded faster and will thus show up closer to the beginning of the list.

Here are possible solutions for this problem:

1. Ordered alphabetically. Experienced users can manage file order with their file naming conventions and this is the easiest solution to implement.
2. Ordered by time added to interface. This behaviour would make more sense to regular users. This would take longer than ordering alphabetically to implement as it requires changes in the front and back ends.
3. Ordered by user input. Here we could have users reorder the files through the interface. This is the hardest to implement and would not recommend it now that we are migrating to another system.

With any of these solutions, we also need to consider the behaviour attached to the file order. Currently, the file that was uploaded first is used for:

1. Default thumbnail.
2. Reference to citation file for google scholar metadata.

What are your thoughts on this @seanluyk ?

[seanluyk]

Thanks, I agree that option 1 is the most intuitive so that’s my preference!