Why "sticky" are included in API calls when not asked for?

eddiewebb

I'm seeing "old posts" at the top of recent discussion list but only for anonymous users

Digging at the API it seems that the discussions controller returns sticky posts first, regardless of the sort asked for.

/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost

Does include most recently posted first BUT only after all the sticky discussions.

You can see this here, https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost that the first 3 are "sticky" and couple weeks old.

but when I login and then view the same API, the sticky posts drop to their appropriate place based on lastPostedAt

I know for some UI that might be desirable to show sticky, but assumed that would be an explicit ask of the API, and consistent across users. Seems some implicit magic I can;t see in the ListDiscussionsController.

Anonymous API call

// 20210515062158
// https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost

{
  "links": {
    "first": "https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost",
    "next": "https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost&page%5Boffset%5D=20"
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "discussions",
      "id": "40",
      "attributes": {
        "title": "ADK Dual Sport Rides - Region 7: Clinton, Franklin & Lewis Counties",
        "slug": "40-adk-dual-sport-rides-region-7-clinton-franklin-lewis-counties",
        "commentCount": 2,
        "participantCount": 1,
        "createdAt": "2021-04-28T16:58:35+00:00",
        "lastPostedAt": "2021-05-03T20:32:18+00:00",
...
        "isSticky": true
      },

Authenticatred API call

// 20210515061840
// https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost

{
  "links": {
    "first": "https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost",
    "next": "https://adkadv.com/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt&include=lastPost&page%5Boffset%5D=20"
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "discussions",
      "id": "42",
      "attributes": {
        "title": "Wolf Pond Road to Lyon Mountain",
        "slug": "42-wolf-pond-road-to-lyon-mountain",
        "commentCount": 9,
        "participantCount": 3,
        "createdAt": "2021-04-29T01:03:16+00:00",
        "lastPostedAt": "2021-05-14T22:47:54+00:00",
...
        "isSticky": false

eddiewebb

I don't see anything in https://docs.flarum.org/extend/api.html#sorting or docs about sticky posts that would explain this.

if I use ?sort=lastPostedAt I get expected results both ways, not sticky posts.

if I use?sort=-createdAt I get expected results.

So I feel like this is something unique to "lastPostedAt" in descending order...

eddiewebb

So i believe it is in Flarum/Sticky that violates the JSON API Spec by overriding the fitler to add sticky.

JSON API Spec which flarum is said to adhere to is very explicity about this:

If sorting is supported by the server and requested by the client via query parameter sort, the server MUST return elements of the top-level data array of the response ordered according to the criteria specified. The server MAY apply default sorting rules to top-level data if request parameter sort is not specified.

But https://github.com/flarum/sticky/blob/master/src/PinStickiedDiscussionsToTop.php#L16 violates this by assuming a default query means the user doesnt care or didnt provide it, but the default query for discussions is lastPostedAt:desc, so anytime someone uses that filter (provided as a sort parameter to API) Sticky extension overrides it, thus returning results not sorted as specified.

askvortsov

eddiewebb IIRC, we changed this in the next release so that if a user has provided a sort, it won't add sticky. Could you check if this still happens on nightly.flarum.site

eddiewebb

askvortsov yes, gladly, but forgive the ignorance as I am not sure how.

I've got local dev instance, but not sure how to reference nightly for composer.

askvortsov

eddiewebb I meant on https://nightly.flarum.site/

eddiewebb

Oh, ha.

Confirmed nightly does appear to behave. Since nightly is @ 1.0 at this point I guess I'm waiting till extensions catch up.

Thanks @askvortsov !!

  "links": {
    "first": "https://nightly.flarum.site/api/discussions?sort=-lastPostedAt"
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "discussions",
      "id": "2",
      "attributes": {
        "title": "This is my second, it came after",
...
        "lastPostedAt": "2021-05-16T12:07:44+00:00",
...
        "isSticky": false,
...
      },
    },
    {
      "type": "discussions",
      "id": "1",
      "attributes": {
        "title": "This is my first discussion",
        "slug": "1-this-is-my-first-discussion",
...
        "lastPostedAt": "2021-05-16T12:06:45+00:00",
...
        "isSticky": true,
        "canSticky": true,