browse-by-date-component is using a wrong item metadata

[xvThomas]

DSpace Version: 9.2

Describe the bug

Here is a part of the browse request response I have at the begining of a frontend session with DSpace:

"browses" : [ {
      "id" : "datecreated",
      "browseType" : "flatBrowse",
      "dataType" : "date",
      "sortOptions" : [ {
        "name" : "datecreated",
        "metadata" : "dc.date.created"
      }, {
        "name" : "dateaccessioned",
        "metadata" : "dc.date.accessioned"
      } ],
      "order" : "DESC",
      "type" : "browse",
      "metadata" : [ "dc.date.created" ],
      ...

In my local.cfg, I have:

# webui.browse.index.<n> = <index name> : item : <sort option name> : (asc | desc)
webui.browse.index.1 = datecreated:item:datecreated:desc

When using the frontend route http://localhost:4000/browse/datecreated, the year select control is not populated by creation date but by issue date.

To Reproduce

• Add webui.browse.index.1 = datecreated:item:datecreated:desc in local.cfg
• Rerun the backend
• Go to "All Dspace"
• Choose "Creation date"
• Open The year select

Expected behavior

The frontend (browse-by-date-component.ts) is unable to decode the browse item "datecreated" and unable to use "dc.date.created" in order to find the first and the last creation dates.

This is the workaround I applied:

Before:

• params.browseDefinition is undefined,
• dc.data.issued is used as a fallback : defaultMetadataKeys = ['dc.date.issued'];
• if dc.date.issued not available in the browse definition, the current year is used. (see getLimit method)

 ngOnInit(): void {
    if (!this.renderOnServerSide && !environment.ssr.enableBrowseComponent && isPlatformServer(this.platformId)) {
      this.loading$ = of(false);
      return;
    }
    const sortConfig = new SortOptions('default', SortDirection.ASC);
    this.startsWithType = StartsWithType.date;
    this.currentPagination$ = this.paginationService.getCurrentPagination(this.paginationConfig.id, this.paginationConfig);
    this.currentSort$ = this.paginationService.getCurrentSort(this.paginationConfig.id, sortConfig);
    const routeParams$: Observable<Params> = observableCombineLatest([
      this.route.params,
      this.route.queryParams,
    ]).pipe(
      map(([params, queryParams]: [Params, Params]) => Object.assign({}, params, queryParams)),
      distinctUntilChanged((prev: Params, curr: Params) => prev.id === curr.id && prev.startsWith === curr.startsWith),
    );
    this.subs.push(
      observableCombineLatest([
        routeParams$,
        this.scope$,
        this.currentPagination$,
        this.currentSort$,
      ]).subscribe(([params, scope, currentPage, currentSort]: [Params, string, PaginationComponentOptions, SortOptions]) => {
        const metadataKeys = params.browseDefinition ? params.browseDefinition.metadataKeys : this.defaultMetadataKeys;
        this.browseId = params.id || this.defaultBrowseId;
        this.startsWith = +params.startsWith || params.startsWith;
        const searchOptions = browseParamsToOptions(params, scope, currentPage, currentSort, this.browseId, this.fetchThumbnails);
        this.updatePageWithItems(searchOptions, this.value, undefined);
        this.updateStartsWithOptions(this.browseId, metadataKeys, params.scope);
      }));
  }
...
private getLimit(itemRD: RemoteData<Item>, metadataKeys: string[], limit: number): number {
    if (hasValue(itemRD.payload)) {
      const date = itemRD.payload.firstMetadataValue(metadataKeys);
      if (isNotEmpty(date) && isValidDate(date)) {
        const dateObj = new Date(date);
        // TODO: it appears that getFullYear (based on local time) is sometimes unreliable. Switching to UTC.
        return isNaN(dateObj.getUTCFullYear()) ? limit : dateObj.getUTCFullYear();
      } else {
        return new Date().getUTCFullYear();
      }
    }
  }

After: Use BrowseDefinition from this.route.data

ngOnInit(): void {
    if (!this.renderOnServerSide && !environment.ssr.enableBrowseComponent && isPlatformServer(this.platformId)) {
      this.loading$ = of(false);
      return;
    }
    const sortConfig = new SortOptions('default', SortDirection.ASC);
    this.startsWithType = StartsWithType.date;
    this.currentPagination$ = this.paginationService.getCurrentPagination(this.paginationConfig.id, this.paginationConfig);
    this.currentSort$ = this.paginationService.getCurrentSort(this.paginationConfig.id, sortConfig);
    const browseDefinition$: Observable<BrowseDefinition | undefined> = observableCombineLatest([
      this.route.data,
      this.route.parent ? this.route.parent.data : of({} as Record<string, any>),
    ]).pipe(
      map(([data, parentData]) => (data?.browseDefinition ?? parentData?.browseDefinition) as BrowseDefinition | undefined),
      distinctUntilChanged((prev, curr) => prev?.id === curr?.id),
    );
    const routeParams$: Observable<Params> = observableCombineLatest([
      this.route.params,
      this.route.queryParams,
    ]).pipe(
      map(([params, queryParams]: [Params, Params]) => Object.assign({}, params, queryParams)),
      distinctUntilChanged((prev: Params, curr: Params) => prev.id === curr.id && prev.startsWith === curr.startsWith),
    );
    this.subs.push(
      observableCombineLatest([
        routeParams$,
        this.scope$,
        this.currentPagination$,
        this.currentSort$,
        browseDefinition$,
      ]).subscribe(([params, scope, currentPage, currentSort, browseDefinition]: [Params, string, PaginationComponentOptions, SortOptions, BrowseDefinition | undefined]) => {
        const metadataKeys = browseDefinition?.metadataKeys ?? this.defaultMetadataKeys;
        this.browseId = params.id || this.defaultBrowseId;
        this.startsWith = +params.startsWith || params.startsWith;
        const searchOptions = browseParamsToOptions(params, scope, currentPage, currentSort, this.browseId, this.fetchThumbnails);
        this.updatePageWithItems(searchOptions, this.value, undefined);
        this.updateStartsWithOptions(this.browseId, metadataKeys, params.scope);
      }));
  }

Any other suggestion ?

[tdonohue]

@xvThomas : Based on what you've described, it's difficult to determine whether this is a bug or a misconfiguration.

In the documentation for the webui.browse.index.* configurations, it notes that when you use an item index, you must specify a corresponding webui.itemlist.sort-option setting.

So, if you are specifying:

webui.browse.index.1 = datecreated:item:datecreated:desc

Then that implies you need to define that datecreated sort option like this:

webui.itemlist.sort-option.3 = datecreated:dc.date.created:date

Additionally, after making any of these changes, you will need to reindex your site by running:

./dspace index-discovery -b

Can you verify whether you've specified both configurations and reindexed? If not, then that is likely the issue here.

If you have already done that, then you may want to submit a PR with your recommended changes (as it often is easier to verify code and test it in PR form). That may help us to find a volunteer to dig into this issue more easily.

[xvThomas]

Hello @tdonohue,

Thanks for your prompt feedback.
This is what I did following your suggestion:

webui.browse.index.1 = datecreated:item:datecreated:desc
webui.browse.index.2 = dateaccessioned:item:dateaccessioned:desc
webui.browse.index.3 = signataire:metadata:dc.creator:text
webui.browse.index.4 = suivipar:metadata:dc.contributor:text

webui.browse.vocabularies.disabled = srsc
webui.itemlist.sort-option.1 = dateaccessioned:dc.date.accessioned:date
webui.itemlist.sort-option.2 = datecreated:dc.date.created:date
webui.itemlist.sort-option.3 = datecreated:dc.date.created:date // Added

Unfortunately the issue is still present.

I suspect a misusage of this.route.params wich could never hold the browseDefinition.

I plan to create a PR on this topic.

NB: And to be honest, the semantic of webui.itemlist.sort-option remains quite weird for me.

[xvThomas]

This issue is misplaced because related to the frontend. See #5120