catalog sort: stop remembering the sort, so Back works and the dropdown can't lie (TK-11470)

d0f8c707623951a9990f6e914784187d386a8152 · 2026-09-11 13:11:08 -0700 · Steve Abrams

Steve's call after the red-team surfaced the tradeoff. The reviewed candidate made a
remembered sort re-request from the server via location.replace. That fixed the old
cosmetic lie but cost more than it bought: Back stopped undoing a sort (/catalog ->
?sort=sku -> Back -> /catalog -> instantly redirected back to ?sort=sku, so a shopper
could never reach the unsorted grid), and it double-counted GA4 page_views on
hollywoodwallcovering, the one site of the eight that has GA4 configured.

So /catalog no longer persists sort at all. The dropdown is always exactly what ?sort=
says, which makes the lie structurally impossible rather than merely corrected. Density
is still remembered. Sorting itself is untouched and still fully works.

Also re-syncs the <select> to the URL on pageshow: browsers restore form-control state
across history navigation, so after Back the dropdown still read "SKU A-Z" above a
Newest grid — the same lie by another route. My own new back-undoes-sort check caught
that, and it only goes green once grid AND dropdown both return to Newest.

Same harness, same data: 0 PASS / 38 FAIL on the unfixed baseline, 40 PASS / 0 FAIL here
(adds sort-not-remembered, dropdown-never-lies, no-redirect, back-undoes-sort).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Files touched

M shared/render.js

Diff

commit d0f8c707623951a9990f6e914784187d386a8152
Author: Steve Abrams <steve@designerwallcoverings.com>
Date:   Fri Sep 11 13:11:08 2026 -0700

    catalog sort: stop remembering the sort, so Back works and the dropdown can't lie (TK-11470)
    
    Steve's call after the red-team surfaced the tradeoff. The reviewed candidate made a
    remembered sort re-request from the server via location.replace. That fixed the old
    cosmetic lie but cost more than it bought: Back stopped undoing a sort (/catalog ->
    ?sort=sku -> Back -> /catalog -> instantly redirected back to ?sort=sku, so a shopper
    could never reach the unsorted grid), and it double-counted GA4 page_views on
    hollywoodwallcovering, the one site of the eight that has GA4 configured.
    
    So /catalog no longer persists sort at all. The dropdown is always exactly what ?sort=
    says, which makes the lie structurally impossible rather than merely corrected. Density
    is still remembered. Sorting itself is untouched and still fully works.
    
    Also re-syncs the <select> to the URL on pageshow: browsers restore form-control state
    across history navigation, so after Back the dropdown still read "SKU A-Z" above a
    Newest grid — the same lie by another route. My own new back-undoes-sort check caught
    that, and it only goes green once grid AND dropdown both return to Newest.
    
    Same harness, same data: 0 PASS / 38 FAIL on the unfixed baseline, 40 PASS / 0 FAIL here
    (adds sort-not-remembered, dropdown-never-lies, no-redirect, back-undoes-sort).
    
    Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 shared/render.js | 24 ++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/shared/render.js b/shared/render.js
index 70ecccc..c4d2f36 100644
--- a/shared/render.js
+++ b/shared/render.js
@@ -765,7 +765,10 @@ ${nsModal(cfg)}
 ${script(cfg)}
 <script>
 (function(){
-  var dk='${cfg.slug}_density',sk='${cfg.slug}_sort';
+  // Density persists; SORT DELIBERATELY DOES NOT (Steve, TK-11470). The dropdown is always
+  // whatever ?sort= says, so it can never show one ordering above a differently-ordered grid,
+  // Back genuinely undoes a sort, and there is no extra redirect/page_view per visit.
+  var dk='${cfg.slug}_density';
   var d=document.getElementById('densSel'),g=document.getElementById('grid');
   var ss=document.getElementById('sortSel'),form=document.getElementById('ctlForm');
   function read(k){try{return localStorage.getItem(k);}catch(e){return null;}}
@@ -790,15 +793,16 @@ ${script(cfg)}
     try{ if(typeof F.requestSubmit==='function'){F.requestSubmit.call(form);return;} }catch(e){}
     F.submit.call(form);
   }
-  ss.addEventListener('change',function(){save(sk,ss.value);send();});
-  var saved=read(sk);
-  var valid=Array.prototype.some.call(ss.options,function(o){return o.value===saved;});
-  if(!params.has('sort') && valid && saved!==ss.value){
-    // Request the saved ordering from the server; never merely relabel an unsorted grid.
-    params.set('sort',saved);params.delete('page');
-    location.replace(location.pathname+'?'+params.toString()+location.hash);
-  }
-
+  ss.addEventListener('change',send);
+  // Browsers restore form-control state across history navigation, so after Back the <select>
+  // can still read "SKU A-Z" above a Newest grid — the same lie by another route. Re-sync it to
+  // the URL on every show (pageshow also covers bfcache restores, which fire no other event).
+  window.addEventListener('pageshow',function(){
+    var want=params.get('sort')||'newest';
+    try{ want=new URLSearchParams(location.search).get('sort')||'newest'; }catch(e){}
+    var known=Array.prototype.some.call(ss.options,function(o){return o.value===want;});
+    if(known && ss.value!==want) ss.value=want;
+  });
 })();
 </script>
 </body></html>`;

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