Fix column sort order gets overwritten (#7573)

Co-authored-by: Carl Christian Snethlage <cc.snethlage@gmail.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ Note that this project **does not** adhere to [Semantic Versioning](http://semve
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- We fixed an issue where the table column sort order was not properly stored and resulted in unsorted eports [#7524](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/7524)
 - We fixed an issue where the value of the field `school` or `institution` would be printed twice in the HTML Export [forum#2634](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/problem-with-exporting-techreport-phdthesis-mastersthesis-to-html/2634)
 - We fixed an issue preventing to connect to a shared database. [#7570](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/7570)
 - We fixed an issue preventing files from being dragged & dropped into an empty library. [#6851](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/6851)

src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/MainTableColumnModel.java

@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ public enum Type {
 
         public static final EnumSet<Type> ICON_COLUMNS = EnumSet.of(EXTRAFILE, FILES, GROUPS, LINKED_IDENTIFIER);
 
-        private String name;
-        private String displayName;
+        private final String name;
+        private final String displayName;
 
         Type(String name) {
             this.name = name;

src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/maintable/PersistenceVisualStateTable.java

@@ -19,28 +19,37 @@ public PersistenceVisualStateTable(final MainTable mainTable, PreferencesService
         this.mainTable = mainTable;
         this.preferences = preferences;
 
-        mainTable.getColumns().addListener((InvalidationListener) obs -> updateColumnPreferences());
-        mainTable.getSortOrder().addListener((InvalidationListener) obs -> updateColumnPreferences());
+        mainTable.getColumns().addListener((InvalidationListener) obs -> updateColumns());
+        mainTable.getSortOrder().addListener((InvalidationListener) obs -> updateSortOrder());
 
         // As we store the ColumnModels of the MainTable, we need to add the listener to the ColumnModel properties,
         // since the value is bound to the model after the listener to the column itself is called.
         mainTable.getColumns().forEach(col ->
-                ((MainTableColumn<?>) col).getModel().widthProperty().addListener(obs -> updateColumnPreferences()));
+                ((MainTableColumn<?>) col).getModel().widthProperty().addListener(obs -> updateColumns()));
         mainTable.getColumns().forEach(col ->
-                ((MainTableColumn<?>) col).getModel().sortTypeProperty().addListener(obs -> updateColumnPreferences()));
+                ((MainTableColumn<?>) col).getModel().sortTypeProperty().addListener(obs -> updateColumns()));
     }
 
     /**
-     * Store shown columns, their width and their sortType in preferences.
+     * Stores shown columns, their width and their sortType in preferences.
      */
-    private void updateColumnPreferences() {
+    private void updateColumns() {
         preferences.storeColumnPreferences(new ColumnPreferences(
                 mainTable.getColumns().stream()
                          .map(column -> ((MainTableColumn<?>) column).getModel())
                          .collect(Collectors.toList()),
+                preferences.getColumnPreferences().getColumnSortOrder()));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Stores the SortOrder of the the Table in the preferences. Cannot be combined with updateColumns, because JavaFX
+     * would provide just an empty list for the sort order on other changes.
+     */
+    private void updateSortOrder() {
+        preferences.storeColumnPreferences(new ColumnPreferences(
+                preferences.getColumnPreferences().getColumns(),
                 mainTable.getSortOrder().stream()
                          .map(column -> ((MainTableColumn<?>) column).getModel())
-                         .collect(Collectors.toList())
-        ));
+                         .collect(Collectors.toList())));
     }
 }

src/main/java/org/jabref/model/metadata/SaveOrderConfig.java

@@ -135,6 +135,11 @@ public static class SortCriterion {
 
         public boolean descending;
 
+        /**
+         *
+         * @param field The field
+         * @param descending Must be a boolean value as string, e.g. "true", "false"
+         */
         public SortCriterion(Field field, String descending) {
             this.field = field;
             this.descending = Boolean.parseBoolean(descending);

src/main/java/org/jabref/preferences/JabRefPreferences.java

@@ -1152,9 +1152,12 @@ private SaveOrderConfig loadTableSaveOrder() {
         updateMainTableColumns();
         List<MainTableColumnModel> sortOrder = createMainTableColumnSortOrder();
 
-        sortOrder.forEach(column -> config.getSortCriteria().add(new SaveOrderConfig.SortCriterion(
-                FieldFactory.parseField(column.getQualifier()),
-                column.getSortType().toString())));
+        for (var column : sortOrder) {
+            boolean descending = (column.getSortType() == SortType.DESCENDING);
+            config.getSortCriteria().add(new SaveOrderConfig.SortCriterion(
+                                                                           FieldFactory.parseField(column.getQualifier()),
+                                                                           descending));
+        }
 
         return config;
     }