Notes/Domino 6 and 7 Forum : Sorted collection with db.search Att: IBM

Me and colleagues frequently use the LS db.search function to query documents from a huge database for reporting purposes. The db.search function offers a SQL like collection of documents, which is great. The only disturbing part is that the function does not allow to sort the result like the SQL ORDERBY statement does.

Using the Notes SQL driver via ODBC would be a workaround, but is not the best way as the OS needs to be touched and a extra driver needs to be installed and configured for this purpose.

Creating extra sorting foldes is a bad workaround for databases with lots of documents and huge view indexes and multi database applications. But of cause possible as a quick and dirty workaround for small purposes.

Sorting a documentcollection by building huge arrays or running a bubble sort function is time intensive and a server performance killer.

On the whishlist is still the option to have an optional db.search parameter, which allows to simply enter an array of fieldnames in the desired sorting order. The array would be used to sort the documentcollection. As the Notes SQL driver already is able to handle sortings via ODBC, this shows it can't be impossible with notes to manage this task.

This function would eleminate a very fundamental disadvantage against a relational database system and would make a lot of Notes developers happy. Please search the forum for persons requesting this feature again and again since a long time.

If this function is in conflict with planned DB2 strategies of IBM please force the DB2 implementation, but if not possible to get a relational system as the new ODS, keep this request in mind for Notes7 please. A lot of notes faithfully developers would very appreciate and would still move to DB2 at a later stage.

Thank you very much.
Frank Strunzkus