Custom sorting script

[dcook]

Is it possible to implement a custom sorting algorithm, for example in a hook script?

Referring to the Hooks page: https://docs.funnelback.com/develop/programming-options/hook-scripts.html

My understanding is that sorting is done in the Query Processor. Is pagination (num_ranks/start_rank) also done here?
If so, I suppose it's not possible to sort the full list of results, just the current page?

[plevan]

That's correct - you can use a hook script to custom sort your results, but only the page of results that is returned.

You can't custom sort the full set of results unless you run a query that returns everything (and this isn't feasible unless you have a very small set of results).

If your custom sort is known in advance and always going to be the same you could generate a sort key and add this as a hidden metadata field using a filter, then use your metadata sorting to sort by this field alphabetically (same instructions as per the KB article that outlines how to sort by multiple keys). https://community.funnelback.com/knowledge-base/implementation/query-processing/sorting-by-multiple-keys

[dcook]

Thanks for confirming Peter.

Yes I forgot to mention, we were planning to generate a sort key, but then realised we'd have to do this on many collections, including two large push collections. As far as I'm aware, we'd have to re-push every single item to add the new metadata, which in our case would be risky and high effort.