Portlet titles appearing in wrong alphabetical order in Apps - Plugins Configuration and in Apps - Components

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 6.2.X EE, 7.0.0 DXP FP22, 7.0.X EE, Master
• Fix Version/s: 6.2.X EE, 7.0.0 DXP FP25, 7.0.0 DXP FP26, 7.0.X EE, 7.0.4 CE GA5, 7.1.X, Master
• Component/s: App Management > Plugins Configuration, Portal Services > Localization
• Labels:
  • ee-ts
  • liferay-digital-enterprise-70-sp5
  • liferay-fixpack-de-25-7010
  • liferay-fixpack-de-26-7010
  • liferay-fixpack-portal-162-6210
• Branch Version/s:
  7.0.x, 6.2.x
• Backported to Branch:
  Committed
• Fix Priority: 3
• Git Pull Request: https://github.com/brianchandotcom/liferay-portal/pull/50471
• Bug Type: Localization

Steps - 7.0.x/master

1. Log in with Test
2. Change display language to German
3. Go to Product Menu - Control Panel - Apps - Components
4. In that page you should see these entries, among others:

   Benutzergruppen
   Benutzerstatistiken
   Benutzer und Organisationen
   

Steps - 6.2.x

1. Log in with Test
2. Change display language to German
3. Go to Control Panel - Apps - Plugins Configuration - "Portlet Plugins" tab
4. In that page you should see these entries, among others:

   Benutzergruppen
   Benutzerstatistiken
   Benutzer und Organisationen
   

Problem: "Benutzer und Organisationen" should appear before "Benutzergruppen" according to the German rules.
You can verify it on http://alphabetizer.flap.tv/.

Technical Background

• com.liferay.portal.util.comparator.PortletTitleComparator.compare(Portlet,Portlet) is responsible for comparing portlet titles: https://github.com/liferay/liferay-portal/blob/master/portal-kernel/src/com/liferay/portal/kernel/util/comparator/PortletTitleComparator.java#L51-L80
• We are using Java Collator based on the given Locale
• Collator may handle spaces and other characters in a non-expected order. See
  • http://jan.baresovi.cz/dr/en/java-collator-spaces
  • https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/RuleBasedCollator.html
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15230339/collator-compares-strings-weird

---

QA/Solution Notes
The following portal property has been added:

portal.properties

    #
    # Specify the collator rules to be used by the CollatorUtil. These rules, if
    # set, are provided to a RulesBasedCollator for text sorting and are only
    # configurable by locale. A file can also be used by prefixing "file\:" to
    # a path on the file system. Using a file means property escaping can be
    # avoided.
    #
    # See https://issues.liferay.com/browse/LPS-73600 for more information.
    #
    #collator.rules[en_US]=

Reference: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/RuleBasedCollator.html

When using a file to configure rules (

collator.rules[en_US]=file\:/path/to/file.txt

), the content should just be the value of the rule, no property escaping is needed.
Example for using a file for rules (on Linux):
add these lines to portal-ext.properties file:

collator.rules[de]=file\:/home/liferay/bundles/ee-6.2.x/rules.txt
collator.rules[en_US]=file\:/home/liferay/bundles/ee-6.2.x/rules.txt
collator.rules[de_DE]=file\:/home/liferay/bundles/ee-6.2.x/rules.txt

And the rules.txt file should contain this line:

='_' < ' ' < a,A < b,B < c,C < d,D < e,E < f,F < g,G < h,H < i,I < j,J < k,K < l,L < m,M < n,N < o,O < p,P < q,Q < r,R < s,S < t,T < u,U < v,V < w,W < x,X < y,Y < z,Z

Example configurations for "German" language:

collator.rules[de]=<'\ '<a\,A<b\,B<c\,C<d\,D<e\,E<f\,F<g\,G<h\,H<i\,I<j\,J<k\,K<l\,L<m\,M<n\,N<o\,O<p\,P<q\,Q<r\,R<s\,S<t\,T<u\,U<v\,V<w\,W<x\,X<y\,Y<z\,Z
collator.rules[de_DE]=<'\ '<a\,A<b\,B<c\,C<d\,D<e\,E<f\,F<g\,G<h\,H<i\,I<j\,J<k\,K<l\,L<m\,M<n\,N<o\,O<p\,P<q\,Q<r\,R<s\,S<t\,T<u\,U<v\,V<w\,W<x\,X<y\,Y<z\,Z