Album first

Help me, please. How to organize items with "Albums fist" functions, as it was in Gallery2.
This is very important for the decision to move to Gallery3.

Thank you, Dave.

The above code did work too well testing... scrap that idea and it's too intrusive. Here is a less intrusive way. The filter is added dynamically.

../modules/gallery/models/item.php

lines added:

$order_by = array_merge(array("type" => "ASC"), $order_by);

BEFORE:

  /**
   * Return all of the children of this album.  Unless you specify a specific sort order, the
   * results will be ordered by this album's sort order.
   *
   * @chainable
   * @param   integer  SQL limit
   * @param   integer  SQL offset
   * @param   array    additional where clauses
   * @param   array    order_by
   * @return array ORM
   */
  function children($limit=null, $offset=null, $where=array(), $order_by=null) {
    if (empty($order_by)) {
      $order_by = array($this->sort_column => $this->sort_order);
      // Use id as a tie breaker
      if ($this->sort_column != "id") {
        $order_by["id"] = "ASC";
      }
    }
    return parent::children($limit, $offset, $where, $order_by);
  }

  /**
   * Return the children of this album, and all of it's sub-albums.  Unless you specify a specific
   * sort order, the results will be ordered by this album's sort order.  Note that this
   * album's sort order is imposed on all sub-albums, regardless of their sort order.
   *
   * @chainable
   * @param   integer  SQL limit
   * @param   integer  SQL offset
   * @param   array    additional where clauses
   * @return object ORM_Iterator
   */
  function descendants($limit=null, $offset=null, $where=array(), $order_by=null) {
    if (empty($order_by)) {
      $order_by = array($this->sort_column => $this->sort_order);
      // Use id as a tie breaker
      if ($this->sort_column != "id") {
        $order_by["id"] = "ASC";
      }
    }
    return parent::descendants($limit, $offset, $where, $order_by);
  }

AFTER:

  /**
   * Return all of the children of this album.  Unless you specify a specific sort order, the
   * results will be ordered by this album's sort order.
   *
   * @chainable
   * @param   integer  SQL limit
   * @param   integer  SQL offset
   * @param   array    additional where clauses
   * @param   array    order_by
   * @return array ORM
   */
  function children($limit=null, $offset=null, $where=array(), $order_by=null) {
    if (empty($order_by)) {
      $order_by = array($this->sort_column => $this->sort_order);
      // Use id as a tie breaker
      if ($this->sort_column != "id") {
        $order_by["id"] = "ASC";
      }

      $order_by = array_merge(array("type" => "ASC"), $order_by);
    }
    return parent::children($limit, $offset, $where, $order_by);
  }

  /**
   * Return the children of this album, and all of it's sub-albums.  Unless you specify a specific
   * sort order, the results will be ordered by this album's sort order.  Note that this
   * album's sort order is imposed on all sub-albums, regardless of their sort order.
   *
   * @chainable
   * @param   integer  SQL limit
   * @param   integer  SQL offset
   * @param   array    additional where clauses
   * @return object ORM_Iterator
   */
  function descendants($limit=null, $offset=null, $where=array(), $order_by=null) {
    if (empty($order_by)) {
      $order_by = array($this->sort_column => $this->sort_order);
      // Use id as a tie breaker
      if ($this->sort_column != "id") {
        $order_by["id"] = "ASC";
      }

      $order_by = array_merge(array("type" => "ASC"), $order_by);
    }
    return parent::descendants($limit, $offset, $where, $order_by);
  }

I don't quite like the solution. It sorts all the types alphabetically. In essence, "albums", "movies", then "photos" first, then the secondary sort will be the user configured sort.

I would love to have more control honestly. If there are no movies, this solutions works fine. I have an idea to make it complete user configurable but can't seem to get it quite working. Any help will be appreciated. I'm not great at PHP and don't know an easy way to debug. The values for 1,2,3 can be replaced with an admin page to determine sort order.

../system/libraries/Database_Builder.php

	/**
	 * Compiles the builder object into a SQL query
	 *
	 * @return  string Compiled query
	 */
	protected function compile()
	{
           ...

		if ( ! empty($this->order_by))
		{
			$sql .= "\nORDER BY ";
			//$sql .= "\n CASE `type` WHEN 'album' THEN 1 WHEN 'movie' THEN 2 WHEN 'photo' THEN 3 ELSE 9 END , ";
			//$sql .= "\n CASE `type` WHEN 'album' THEN name ELSE null END , ";
			$sql .= $this->compile_order_by();
		}

           ...
        }