Add support for modifying default page listing ordering

CHANGELOG.txt

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Changelog
  * Use a single instance of `PagePermissionPolicy` in `wagtail.permissions` module (Sage Abdullah)
  * Add max tag length validation for multiple uploads (documents/images) (Temidayo Azeez)
  * Ensure expanded side panel does not overlap form content for most viewports (Chiemezuo Akujobi)
+ * Add ability to modify the default ordering for the page explorer view (Shlomo Markowitz)
  * Fix: Update system check for overwriting storage backends to recognise the `STORAGES` setting introduced in Django 4.2 (phijma-leukeleu)
  * Fix: Prevent password change form from raising a validation error when browser autocomplete fills in the "Old password" field (Chiemezuo Akujobi)
  * Fix: Ensure that the legacy dropdown options, when closed, do not get accidentally clicked by other interactions wide viewports (CheesyPhoenix, Christer Jensen)

CONTRIBUTORS.md

@@ -773,6 +773,7 @@
 * Mariana Bedran Lesche
 * Bhuvnesh Sharma
 * Ben Morse
+* Shlomo Markowitz
 
 ## Translators
 

docs/reference/pages/model_reference.md

@@ -218,6 +218,36 @@ See also [django-treebeard](https://django-treebeard.readthedocs.io/en/latest/in
 
     .. automethod:: copy_for_translation
 
+    .. method:: get_admin_default_ordering
+
+       Returns the default sort order for child pages to be sorted in viewing the admin pages index and not seeing search results.
+
+       The following sort orders are available:
+
+       - ``'content_type'``
+       - ``'-content_type'``
+       - ``'latest_revision_created_at'``
+       - ``'-latest_revision_created_at'``
+       - ``'live'``
+       - ``'-live'``
+       - ``'ord'``
+       - ``'title'``
+       - ``'-title'``
+
+       For example to make a page sort by title for all the child pages only if there are < 20 pages.
+
+       .. code-block:: python
+
+           class BreadsIndexPage(Page):
+               def get_admin_default_ordering(self):
+                   if Page.objects.child_of(self).count() < 20:
+                       return 'title'
+                   return self.admin_default_ordering
+
+    .. attribute:: admin_default_ordering
+
+        An attribute version for the method ``get_admin_default_ordering()``, defaults to ``'-latest_revision_created_at'``.
+
     .. autoattribute:: localized
 
     .. autoattribute:: localized_draft

docs/releases/6.0.md

@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ depth: 1
  * Use a single instance of `PagePermissionPolicy` in `wagtail.permissions` module (Sage Abdullah)
  * Add max tag length validation for multiple uploads (documents/images) (Temidayo Azeez)
  * Ensure expanded side panel does not overlap form content for most viewports (Chiemezuo Akujobi)
+ * Add ability to [modify the default ordering](page_model_ref) for the page explorer view (Shlomo Markowitz)
 
 ### Bug fixes
 

wagtail/admin/tests/pages/test_explorer_view.py

@@ -126,6 +126,54 @@ def test_ordering(self):
             page_ids, [self.child_page.id, self.new_page.id, self.old_page.id]
         )
 
+    def test_change_default_child_page_ordering_attribute(self):
+        # save old get_default_order to reset at end of test
+        # overriding class methods does not reset at end of test case
+        default_order = self.root_page.__class__.admin_default_ordering
+        self.root_page.__class__.admin_default_ordering = "title"
+        response = self.client.get(
+            reverse("wagtailadmin_explore", args=(self.root_page.id,))
+        )
+
+        # child pages should be ordered by title
+        page_ids = [page.id for page in response.context["pages"]]
+        self.assertEqual(
+            page_ids, [self.child_page.id, self.new_page.id, self.old_page.id]
+        )
+        self.assertEqual("title", self.root_page.get_admin_default_ordering())
+        self.assertEqual(response.context["ordering"], "title")
+
+        # reset default order at the end of the test
+        self.root_page.__class__.admin_default_ordering = default_order
+
+    def test_change_default_child_page_ordering_method(self):
+        # save old get_default_order to reset at end of test
+        # overriding class methods does not reset at end of test case
+        default_order_function = self.root_page.__class__.get_admin_default_ordering
+
+        def get_default_order(obj):
+            return "-title"
+
+        # override get_default_order_method
+        self.root_page.__class__.get_admin_default_ordering = get_default_order
+
+        response = self.client.get(
+            reverse("wagtailadmin_explore", args=(self.root_page.id,))
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertTemplateUsed(response, "wagtailadmin/pages/index.html")
+
+        # child pages should be ordered by title
+        page_ids = [page.id for page in response.context["pages"]]
+        self.assertEqual("-title", self.root_page.get_admin_default_ordering())
+        self.assertEqual(
+            page_ids, [self.old_page.id, self.new_page.id, self.child_page.id]
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(response.context["ordering"], "-title")
+
+        # reset default order function at the end of the test
+        self.root_page.__class__.get_admin_default_ordering = default_order_function
+
     def test_reverse_ordering(self):
         response = self.client.get(
             reverse("wagtailadmin_explore", args=(self.root_page.id,)),

wagtail/admin/views/pages/listing.py

@@ -321,6 +321,18 @@ def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
         )
         return context
 
+    def get_ordering(self):
+        """
+        Use the parent Page's `get_admin_default_ordering` method.
+        """
+        if self.query_string:
+            # default to ordering by relevance
+            return None
+        elif not self.request.GET.get("ordering"):
+            return self.parent_page.get_admin_default_ordering()
+
+        return super().get_ordering()
+
 
 class IndexResultsView(BaseIndexView):
     template_name = "wagtailadmin/pages/index_results.html"

wagtail/models/__init__.py

@@ -1245,6 +1245,9 @@ class Page(AbstractPage, index.Indexed, ClusterableModel, metaclass=PageBase):
     # Define the maximum number of instances this page can have under a specific parent. Default to unlimited.
     max_count_per_parent = None
 
+    # Set the default order for child pages to be shown in the Page index listing
+    admin_default_ordering = "-latest_revision_created_at"
+
     # An array of additional field names that will not be included when a Page is copied.
     exclude_fields_in_copy = []
     default_exclude_fields_in_copy = [
@@ -1362,6 +1365,13 @@ def get_default_locale(self):
 
         return super().get_default_locale()
 
+    def get_admin_default_ordering(self):
+        """
+        Determine the default ordering for child pages in the admin index listing.
+        Returns a string (e.g. 'latest_revision_created_at, title, ord' or 'live').
+        """
+        return self.admin_default_ordering
+
     def full_clean(self, *args, **kwargs):
         # Apply fixups that need to happen before per-field validation occurs