Hello monoazulweb.

I am sorry to disappoint you, but unfortunately something like this is not possible with the plugin's built in features.

If you set one column to be the default column for sorting, and then do the same for the second column - the settings for first column will clear, and use the second one for default sorting.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Best regards.

I think so, monoazulweb.

But, can you share the link to the page in question with me, so I can take a look and see what you mean?

You can also record your screen, so that I see what behavior to expect.

Best regards.

Hello again monoazulweb.

I logged in and saw the issue.

The thing with grouped columns is that they are being transformed into rows, and that's why the table is not sorting by them anymore. 

What you can do, though, is to create a new wpDataTable, and to add a new column to the Google Spreadsheet document, where you will duplicate the CATEGORIA column. Then, you can sort the table by that duplicated column by default, and just hide it from front-end. So the original CATEGORIA remains grouped, and the table is sorted by the duplicate, starting from GENERAL, and move down.

You will need to create a new table because adding columns to existing Google Spreadsheets will break the existing wpDataTable. Unfortunately it is one of the limitations, mentioned in our documentation:

Once you create a table from a Google Spreadsheet, changes in the core file from which a table is created, like:

• Changing the column’s name,
• Changing the column’s order,
• Deleting the column, and
• Adding a new column.

are highly not recommended, because the old table will not work, at the moment. If you make any of these changes, please recreate the table again.

Best regards.

Hello again monoazulweb.

Yeah, it looks like the grouped columns are pulling the sorting from the source file. I exported your table to Excel, and tried the same logic, but unfortunately it behaves the same.

I also tried with conditional formatting, adding integer values to GENERAL, 2012, 2011..... but as soon as I used grouping it changed it back to 1, 2, 3, etc.

So, I believe the only solution here would be to change the order of rows in Google Spreadsheet, so it starts from GENERAL and works its way down.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Best regards.

Hey monoazulweb.

I saw you allowed access. Something really strange is happening with the data in your Google Spreadsheet and our plugin.

Please leave both new sheets added in the Google Spreadsheet document, and we'll continue testing.

I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Best regards.

Hello monoazulweb.

After a lot of troubleshooting I found that a very simple mistake got through under our noses.

The zeros in your table (under CAT. column) are actually letter O. So, the plugin sees it as string column because instead of 2012, it says 2O12 (note the difference between 0 and O). You need to rewrite all the years and change the letter O to number 0.

You can take a look at the "TEST SUPPORT 2" sheet in your Google Spreadsheet and see what I'm talking about. After importing that sheet in our plugin, it sorted the table normally, so I believe this will resolve the issue with some work.

Best regards.

Hi monoazulweb.

Seems like you're correct. Looks like ascending is hard-coded in the plugin when it comes to the grouped columns.

Changing this would, unfortunately, be considered custom work, and customizations are not covered in the included support of the plugin. If you're interested, you can hire one of our developers to do this for you - the price is $50 per hour.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Best regards.

Hi again monoazulweb.

For some reason I am able to log in using the credentials you provided, but when I try to go into the dashboard, it gives me this error:

Well, anyway, let's get back to the topic here.

if there are 200 lines and group this order must DEFAULT follow from 1 to 200 and I guess if I want to change this order I need to customize. Right?

Exactly right, row grouping is set to be ascending by default, and changing this is considered a customization.

it is an error that when we group lines, it creates a random order without following any logic. Or I'm wrong?

This statement was true until you changed the "O" to be "0". After that, row grouping sorted in ascending logic: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and GENERAL. Please take a look at the attached screen recording to see how it behaves.

Now, finding the solution was easier than I originally thought it would be, so you can see how easy it'll be to implement it in the video.

Here's what you have to do:

Open ../wp-content/plugins/wpdatatables/assets/js/jquery-datatables/jquery.dataTables.rowGrouping.js and look for line 77:

sGroupingColumnSortDirection: "",

Change it to look like this:

sGroupingColumnSortDirection: "desc",

And then, line 96:

sGroupingColumnSortDirection2: "",

And change it to look like this:

sGroupingColumnSortDirection2: "desc",

Save that file, and then delete cache and perform a hard reload of the page, and the grouped column will sort like "GENERAL, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006".

Please note that this is a customization, but simpler than I thought it would be, so there's no need for us to charge you for it.

Also, please save this procedure, you will need to do it again when the plugin is updated, since a new version will override this.

Please let me know if it works on your website.

Best regards.

You are welcome monoazulweb. Glad I could help.

If you have any more issues or questions feel free to open a new ticket, we will gladly help.

I believe that working with you on this - finding an easy solution will probably lead to having the feature implemented in the plugin in one of our next updates.

Until then, save this for when an update occurs.

Best regards.

Hello katefwilson.

When you are posting on ticket that are not yours or have questions or issues which are not related to the title of the active ticket can you please open a new one, and we will help you there. In that way, issues and questions which are related to different subjects will be in different tickets so other customers or our support agents can find it easily. Our policy is to have one issue or question per ticket because of the reasons that is described already.

Thank you for understanding.

Best regards.