Can't find ribbon button. How to change the order from ascending to descending by-metadata

[SebastianMC]

Two questions were posted and addressed here:

• Can't find ribbon button
• How to change the sorting order direction from ascending to descending, for by-metadata order

[yyy3332]

cant find - ribbon button

[yyy3332]

[SebastianMC]

Hi @yyy3332

there are two common cases for the ribbon button not appearing:

1. Plugin is installed and not enabled after installation.
   • to fix this, go to the Community plugins section of Settings and use the respective checkbox to enable the plugin:
     
2. Some generic failure on the plugin startup. Rare case, yet possible
   • to fix this a screenshot of Obsidian console should be posted here in order to help to identify the problem.

[yyy3332]

@SebastianMC
Everything working now, thanks a lot man 💪❤️

[SebastianMC]

Good to hear, cool!

[Bojji-git]

Hello @SebastianMC,

I recently installed your Custom File Explorer Sorting plugin. Somehow, I managed to get it do what I needed it to do (at last—sigh!).

Now, here's where I'm stuck: I'm using the "< a-z by-metadata" type of sorting—it sorts notes having given Metadata alphabetically and in ascending order. That said, what I want is the exact opposite—I want to have them sorted alphabetically but in descending order.

So... in short, I want to know what the right wording equivalent to "order-desc: a-z" that should go where "a-z" is in "< a-z by-metadata" is, in order that my notes w given metadata be presented in alphabetical and descending order. I went through the manuals but couldn't find the wording. Could you help me with that, please?

Ps. Had to create a git acc. just so I could pose this message :).

[SebastianMC]

Hi @Bojji-git

for clarity, the syntax which you currently use for alphabetical ascending sorting by metadata is (based on your example):
< a-z by-metadata: my-metadata-field-name

In the above syntax:

• the token < means ascending order
• the token a-z expresses alphabetical
• the token by-metadata: tells to sort by metadata value (of the metadata specified by name)

You want to change the direction from ascending to descending and to do that you need to replace the first token.
There are two valid syntaxes for the descending order:

• > which is the concise one, or
• order-desc: which is the verbose, more readable equivalent

In result, your desired syntax for alphabetical sorting by metadata with the order set to descending (instead of ascending) is:
> a-z by-metadata: my-metadata-field-name, or with the more verbose notation:
order-desc: a-z by-metadata: my-metadata-field-name

I hope it helps!

PS. Thanks for the report and the effort to register in github! I believe such Q & A exchanges (like this one) could be valuable and helpful for other people seeking advice. Longer term, the documentation will contain more HOW-TOs and real-life examples. Until then, my focus is to prepare next release of the plugin, with the support for order items via drag & drop in Bookmarks core plugin.

[Bojji-git]

Oh... That simple! That's the exact response I was looking for. Helped tremendously!

Thank you for your very clear explanation and for spearheading such a much needed plugin.

Looking forward to the new releases (though already satisfied with what's possible to accomplish thus far).