Why isn't my $sort Operator on dates function consistent in my query? - sorting

Question

I am trying to write a query to sort out documents based on descending dates ...{sort: {paymentDate: -1 }} order. The first time the query runs, the query section {sort: {paymentDate: -1 }} seems get ignored!
However when I refresh the page in the browser, the query section {sort: {paymentDate: -1 }} is applied, and the query displays in the correct sort order.
I need to know how to correct this issue!
Find below the contents of my document after I run the recipientsDetails.find().fetch(); query in the browser console:
0:
payersUserId: "hbieZBFNE53GpE8LP"
paymentDate: "2019-02-11 02:37:05"
payersNumber: "[phone]"
paymentStatus: "Failed"
recipientNumber: "[phone]"
_id: "eFShDRzp9JM9ejG5S"
1:
payersUserId: "hbieZBFNE53GpE8LP"
paymentDate: "2019-02-08 16:02:25"
payersNumber: "[phone]"
paymentStatus: "Failed"
recipientNumber: "[phone]"
_id: "SnpNwsx49mZfPNSg7"
2:
payersUserId: "hbieZBFNE53GpE8LP"
paymentDate: "2019-02-08 15:00:02"
payersNumber: "[phone]"
paymentStatus: "Failed"
recipientNumber: "[phone]"
_id: "ZHWSiRBYk2xoZvDzb"
The above results is also the desired sorted order.
Perhaps the below helper code might shade some light.
../client/main.js
Template.paymentB2C.helpers({
'enableButton': function () {
var enableButtonStatusArray = [];
var userIdCode = Meteor.userId();
var phoneNumber = Meteor.users.findOne({_id: userIdCode }, { fields: { "profile.telephoneNumber": 1 } } );
var usersPhoneNumber = phoneNumber.profile.telephoneNumber;
var selectedRecipientDetails = recipientsDetails.find( { $or: [ { payersNumber: usersPhoneNumber }, { recipientNumber: usersPhoneNumber } ] },
{ fields: {
"payersUserId": 1,
"paymentDate": 1,
"paymentStatus": 1,
"_id": 1
} }).fetch();
selectedRecipientDetails.forEach((user) => {
payersUserId = user.payersUserId;
paymentDate = user.paymentDate;
paymentStatus = user.paymentStatus;
_id = user._id;
if(paymentStatus === "Failed"){
enableButtonStatusArray.push({
paymentStatus: paymentStatus,
paymentDate: paymentDate,
_id: _id
});
}
else if(paymentStatus === "Passed"){
enableButtonStatusArray.push({
paymentStatus: paymentStatus,
paymentDate: paymentDate,
_id: _id});
}
Session.set('enableButtonStatusArray2', enableButtonStatusArray );
});
var enableButtonStatusArrayForPrint = Session.get('enableButtonStatusArray2');
return enableButtonStatusArrayForPrint;
}
});
Note that the query here lacks a ...{sort: {paymentDate: -1 }} function.
Find below my Router code:
../client/main.js
Router.route('/paymentB2C', {
name: 'paymentB2C',
template: 'paymentB2C',
waitOn: function(){
return Meteor.subscribe('pendingPayments')
}
});
This leads to my Meteor.subscribe('pendingPayments') publish function:
../server/main.js
Meteor.publish('pendingPayments', function pendingPayments(){
return recipientsDetails.find({}, {sort: {paymentDate: -1 }});
});
Note that here is where I have the sort function.
Can someone explain why when codes first runs, the sort is ignored and the the document is randomly sorted, however is sorted out as designed (correctly) after hitting refresh in the browser?
Looking forward to your help.

Answer 1

Ideally, you should sort the data on the client-side query after you subscribe, instead of sorting it in the publish method.
The reason is that if the client subscribes to more than one publish function which will publish data from the same collections, your find query in the client-side will have access to the data from both publish as well as sort won't be effective. Moreover, publish is something which will grant data access to the subscriber and if the mini-mongo on the client side already has the data, it won't sync the data unless new data arrives.
Hence, you should always do sort and filter in your find queries on the client side as well.
Also, I notice that the format of the paymentDate field is not a 'Date'. It should ideally be of the Date format and should look something like ISODate("2019-02-11T02:37:05.000Z") instead of String format "2019-02-11 02:37:05". So if the sorting on the client side is also not working, try saving the paymentDate in the database as Date instead as a String.