natcasesort($nonmembers);

I can produce the desired behavior by modifying /course/groups.php file

If I comment out line 174 (the original)
// $nonmembers[$student->id] = fullname($student, true);

and insert a modified version of the line:
$nonmembers[$student->id] = $student->lastname.', '.$student->firstname;

I am able to get the behavior that I want. Similarly, if someone want to sort by username they could instead use:
$nonmembers[$student->id] = $student->username.' ('.$student->lastname.', '.$student->firstname.')';

For consistency the same procedure should be applied to the teacher array on line 185
commenting out line 185
// $nonmembers[$teacher->id] = $prefix.fullname($teacher, true);

and replacing it with either (to sort by lastname)
$nonmembers[$teacher->id] = $prefix.$teacher->lastname.', '.$teacher->firstname;

or (to sort by username)
// $nonmembers[$teacher->id] = $prefix.$teacher->username.' ('.$teacher->lastname.', '.$teacher->firstname.')';

It is just a matter of setting up a course variable (for example, $course->groupsortby) and adding some if statements or a case statement to it and then modifying the course edit.php file to include a dropdown box with the options for fullname, lastname, firstname or username.

Unless I'm missing something obvious (highly likely as I've only had a quick think about this) to see a student's username a teacher would need to log in as a student (for each student) to find their username. So would the ability to be able to sort by username be useful in practice?

I have commented out the equivalent line ie ( // $nonmembers[$contextuser->id] = fullname($contextuser, true)
and altered the suggested code to match the changes:
$nonmembers[$contextuser->id] = $contextuser->firstname.', '.$contextuser->lastname;

Doing this I can alter the order of the display but it STILL sorts by lastname ...

(ps I want to sort by firstname)

Any idea what I am missing?

Thanks

if ($contextusers = get_role_users($roleid, $context)) {
foreach ($contextusers as $contextuser) { # $nonmembers[$contextuser->id] = fullname($contextuser, true); $nonmembers[$contextuser->id] = $contextuser->firstname.', '.$contextuser->lastname; }
}
natcasesort($nonmembers);
unset($contextusers);

I have now got an easy way for teachers to add pupils to their groups.

Thanks

Matt

-wish i knew more about PHP

from:
$fullname = fullname($user, true);

to:
$fullname = $user->lastname.', '.$user->firstname;

this is significantly simpler in 1.8 which makes make think that giving the user a choice would be fairly easy

if {some condition like $sortbyfullname=true}
then $fullname = fullname($user, true);
else $fullname = $user->lastname.', '.$user->firstname;

I'm sure there are 100 better ways to implement this but it should be fairly simple and I could see it giving greater flexibility in terms of how names are sorted and shown.

I actually think in would be useful to be able to only list users not already in a group so as you add members the list keeps getting smaller to wade through. We are now using Moodle as our K-12 online gradebook and our "Groups" are being used as our course sections, so students are only members of a single group for a particular course. I has hoped to drop the 1.7 code in 1.8 but the structure changed enough that it wasn't possible.

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Groups_FAQ

Quoting:
---------------------------
How can I change the sort order of the participants?
The admin can change the "fullnamedisplay" which will affect the sort order of participants.
Have your admin go to:
Administration >> Configuration >> Variables
Then under "User," see "fullnamedisplay."
(Tested using Moodle 1.6.3.)
---------------------------

Tracker #734 also references this variable, and closes the ticket:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-734

I've dug around through 1.9, and can find anything that matches what they're describing. I suspect we lost this functionality in the jump from 1.6x to 1.7x, though if it existed under 1.6x, why was this tracker ticket spawned in the first place?

Can we update this ticket to be a feature request for Moodle 2.0? (or does another ticket out there duplicate this one for 2.0?) With 18 votes, it seems like a pretty popular request.

function groups_get_users_not_in_group_by_role($courseid, $groupid, $searchtext='', $sort = 'u.lastname ASC, u.firstname ASC') {

I think we need to decide, and perhaps you can encourage some discussion on this as to the behavior desired for sorting. I had initially created the issue because I wanted to display the student name as firstname lastname; however, I wanted an option to sort them by lastname firstname or possibly even username. When I created the issue username was more important to me than it is now. So I think we have a number of possible areas for improvement here.

1) simply add firstname to the sort list so that we get an accurate sorting (step 1)

2) have the sort order follow whatever is set by $CFG->fullnamedisplay (keeping in mind that there are four options and that if the firstname display name is chosen that we may want to sort by firstname lastname - I have mixed feelings about how to deal with the question of firstname only and would need to explore further what happens when using the language locale order). Currently, the sort is always lastname and this should probably be flexible.

3) Even with some flexibility by using $CFG->fullnamedisplay, I think that it would be helpful to have a separte variable for a default sorting order. Perhaps something like $CFG->usersortdefault which could be set to be fullname, lastname/firstname, firstname/lastname, user id, idnumber, etc. Then names could be displayed one way and sorted another and this would be configurable by the site admin.

Let me know if this plan of attack makes sense and then we can move on to role assignments and other places were the sort order is not ideal. Peace - Anthony

I would set the default $sort value for the parameter to "", and then only run your new logic if empty($sort).

Finally, if $CFG->fullnamedisplay was something other than (lastname firstname) or (lastname firstname) then I would explicitly set $sort = 'u.lastname ASC, u.firstname ASC' at that point.

That could squeeze into 1.9.6

Cheers and thanks!

$CFG->fullnamedisplay can have four possible (valid) values:
firstname lastname
lastname firstname
firstname
language

The fullnamedisplay language string should be either:
firstname lastname
lastname firstname
firstname

I opted to make firstname ASC, lastname ASC the default to avoid some additional checks and thus lumping firstname lastname and firstname together. Then we only need to check if it is lastname. The down side to this is that if someone were to put in a bogus string then the function will default to firstname ASC, lastname ASC but that seems relatively trivial.

I was not 100% clear on your last comment about "if $CFG->fullnamedisplay was something other than" but I think we have all the cases reasonably covered.

Peace - Anthony

$string['fullnamedisplay'] = '$a->firstname $a->lastname';

so here is a revised patch that follows the logic used in /admin/user.php although I will admit it seems unnecessarily complex but perhaps there was some hope the string could be used in different ways but we can save evaluating that one for another day.

Peace - Anthony

Something like:

if (empty($sort)) {    // Determine a default from system settings
        $sort = 'u.firstname ASC, u.lastname ASC';
        if (!empty($CFG->fullnamedisplay) ) { 
            if ($CFG->fullnamedisplay == 'lastname firstname') {
                 $sort = 'u.lastname ASC, u.firstname ASC';
            } else if ($CFG->fullnamedisplay == 'language') {
                $override = new object();
                $override->firstname = 'firstname';
                $override->lastname = 'lastname';
                $fullnamelanguage = get_string('fullnamedisplay', '', $override);
                if ($fullnamelanguage == 'lastname firstname' ) {  
                    $sort = 'u.lastname ASC, u.firstname ASC';
                }
            }
        }
    }

My only slight worry is: will this make sense in 1.9.6?

a) It flips the current default sort in some cases.
b) Does it make sense to everyone to always sort by the first word first? (Just asking)

If $sort and $CFG->fullnamedisplay are both empty then the default is lastname firstname; however, I fear this would be a challenging state to get in as someone would have to work at this by either deleting the value in the config database or setting it to blank in config.

a) It flips the current default sort in some cases.

Since the default fullnamedisplay (from Security->Site policies) is 'firstname lastname' the new default behavior would be to sort by firstname lastname which represents a change in 1.9 behavior. I would still consider it an improvement because with the patch the site admin has the option to control the desired behavior. As the code is now, the list is always sorted 'lastname firstname' unless specified by the code (with $sort) and thus effectively ignores the fullnamedisplay setting. My argument for including the patch in 1.9.6 is that this is the behavior specific in the documentation (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Groups_FAQ#How_can_I_change_the_sort_order_of_the_participants.3F) which I assume is what folks expect to happen. That said, I do not like to see the behavior changed in a stable release. What we may want to do is simply leave the patch here for those who want it for 1.9, apply the patch to HEAD, and update Moodle Docs such that for 1.9 there is a reference to the patch and an explanation about the change of (improved) behavior in 2.0.

b) Does it make sense to everyone to always sort by the first word first? (Just asking)

Good question as that is essentially what initially prompted me to create the issue. I wanted the users sorted by lastname firstname but displayed firstname lastname. This would require a second variable like fullnamesort. In the process of looking at things, I noticed the difference in what was in Moodle Docs and what was actually happening.

Let me know if you want a patch (2.0 and/or 1.9) for what I described above (comment dated 17/Oct/09 09:41 AM) as the third step toward improvement. This brings us back to the first step which may want to do for 1.9.6 is simply to add 'firstname ASC' to the default $sort so that it sorts first on lastname and secondarily on firstname displaying (but not sorting) as determined by $CFG->fullnamedisplay.

Peace - Anthony