Make search sort option sticky by type

[mekarpeles]

Proposal

Right now, there are sort droppers on...

(a) search page,

(b) author pages,

and (c) list pages

Every time one refreshes the page, these droppers return to their default selected value.

We'd like to use locaStorage to keep track of the last selected sort option per type (i.e. we should store a different selectedSorts value for searchPage, authorPage, listPage, e.g.

selectedSorts = { searchPage: null, authorPage: null, listPage: null }

We use localStorage similarly elsewhere in our JS:

openlibrary/openlibrary/plugins/openlibrary/js/SearchUtils.js

Line 42 in 6ff7058

/** String value that's persisted to localstorage */

Justification

Several librarians, including @seabelis and @mheiman, have told us that now that all sort links are in a dropper, it's becoming more challenging to re-select the sort option they want every time they redo a search.

Breakdown

Requirements Checklist

• Selecting a sort option should update the selected result for that type in localstorage
• If a value exists in localstorage and a patron performs a search for a given type, the corresponding localstorage value should be fetched and used / put into the search form as sort= <input type="hidden" name="sort" value="$(whatever-localstorage-value)>

Related files

• https:/internetarchive/openlibrary/blob/master/openlibrary/templates/work_search.html#L33-L39 for /search
• https:/internetarchive/openlibrary/blob/master/openlibrary/templates/type/author/view.html#L134-L135 for authors
• https:/internetarchive/openlibrary/blob/master/openlibrary/templates/type/list/view_body.html#L96 for lists

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[cdrini]

Heads up marking this as needs community discussions since I think the proposed solution would be confusing. Would love for folks to discuss it during the next design call! I will be away, but here are the main concerns:

1. Users will be confused who might try searching for something and try the e.g. random sort. Then next time they search a few days later, all their results will be random!
2. Sorting is often used for a specific type of search, and generally doesn't specify a user preference.
3. I can't find any other website that makes the sorting option sticky. It's not a common UX pattern. (eg TPL, LibraryThing, Amazon)

I liked @seabelis proposal of adding a checkbox to make the search filters/sort sticky. That seems like the best of both worlds. Gives librarians/expert users a way to toggle stickiness when they're working on a certain task, and gives the larger majority of users who use Open Library not for bulk editing the experience that's standard across the rest of the web.

[bitnapper]

I'd prefer another arrangement for the dropdown if that is possible:

Also a cahnge from Show only ebooks? to [x] eBooks only