Spry Sort Not Working

Question

Spry Detail Repeat Region on my page and I have an XML
database. In the database are webinars, complete with a "Date" tag.
While the data does sort, it doesn't seem to recognize them
as dates. For instance, the date 01/01/2007 would come before
01/02/2008, while it should be sorting it with the most recent
first.
As a workaround, I've input the dates in the XML table as
they should be ordered, but it's not optimal.
The dates are entered in as:
MM/DD/YYYY
I've copied the relevant parts of the code below and would
appreciate some help!
Thank you,
Dan
<script src="../../../SpryAssets/xpath.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="../../../SpryAssets/SpryData.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="../../../SpryAssets/SpryURLUtils.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="../../../SpryAssets/SpryPagedView.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//Define the Data Set
var ds1 = new Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("webinars.xml",
"news/article/Date",{sortOnLoad:"Date",sortOrderOnLoad:"ascending",distinctOnLoad:true});
ds1.setColumnType("Date", "date");
var pageOffset = 0;
var pageSize = 29;
var pageStop = pageOffset + pageSize;
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//Get the URL parameter for the row number
var ds1 = new Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("webinars.xml",
"news/article", { filterFunc: MyPagingFunc });
// webinarimage is not a valid date so you should not be
// setting the column type for it.
// ds1.setColumnType("webinarimage", "date");
var params = Spry.Utils.getLocationParamsAsObject();
if (params.row)
ds1.addObserver({ onPostLoad: function(ds, type) {
ds1.setCurrentRow(params.row); }
function MyPagingFunc(ds, row, rowNumber)
if (rowNumber < pageOffset || rowNumber >= pageStop)
return null;
return row;
function UpdatePage(offset)
var numRows = ds1.getUnfilteredData().length;
if (offset > (numRows - pageSize))
offset = numRows - pageSize;
if (offset < 0)
offset = 0;
pageOffset = offset;
pageStop = offset + pageSize;
// Re-apply our non-destructive filter on dsStates1:
ds1.filter(MyPagingFunc);
// Tell our 2nd region to update because we've adjusted
// some of the variables it uses in its spry:if expressions.
Spry.Data.updateRegion("list2");
// Change the XPath for the 3rd data set so that the 3rd
// region updates. Remember, position() starts at one and
not
// zero, so we have to add one to our pageOffset and
pageStop.
dsStates3.setXPath("/states/state[position() >=" +
(pageOffset+1) + " and position() < " + (pageStop+1) + "]");
</script>
<div id="Specials_Detail_DIV" spry:detailregion="ds1"
class="SpryHiddenRegion">
<table id="Specials_Detail_Table">
<tr>
<td width="200" valign="top"><a
href="Webinars_detail.asp?row={ds_RowID}">{webinarimage}</a></td>
<td width="238" valign="top" class="standardtext">
<p><span
class="subheading">{Title}</span><br>
<br>
{Speaker}<br></p>
<a
href="Webinars_detail.asp?row={ds_RowID}">{access}</a>
<br>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div id="Specials_DIV" width="500" spry:region="ds1"
class="SpryHiddenRegion" style="overflow:auto; height:300px;
width:500px" >
<table id="Specials_Table">
<tr>
<th width="92" height="19" class="standardtext"
scope="col" spry:sort="Title" ><a href="javascript:
void(0)">Title</a></th>
<th scope="col" spry:sort="topic" width="112"
class="standardtext" ><a href="javascript:
void(0)">Topic</a></th>
<th scope="col" spry:sort="Date" width="92"
class="standardtext" ><a href="javascript: void(0)">Air
Date</a></th>
</tr>
<!--User clicks to reset the current row in the data
set-->
<tr spry:repeat="ds1" spry:setrow="ds1" spry:odd="eg-bar"
spry:even="eg-bar2">
<td valign="top" class="standardtext" ><a
href="javascript: void(0)">{Title}</a></td>
<td valign="top" class="standardtext"
>{topic}</td>
<td valign="top" class="standardtext"
>{Date}</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
[code]
<article id="23ASD38675">
<Title><![CDATA[Title]]></Title>
<Speaker><![CDATA[Speakers: ]]></Speaker>
<Genesys><![CDATA[<a href="../link"><img
src="../../../images/icn_webinar_39.gif" width="39" height="40"
border="0"><br>View Replay</a>]]></Genesys>
<Date>02/27/2008</Date>
<MDate>February 27, 2008</MDate>
<Series>Family Continuity and Governance
Series</Series>
<webinarimage><![CDATA[<img
src="../../../private/members/resource_center/images/022708-preview-imageB.gif"
width="200" height="150" border="0">]]></webinarimage>
</article>
[/code]

Answer 1

Date sorting with the format you use works just fine. I just
tested it out. So I took a closer look at your code, and I see
this:
var ds1 = new Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("webinars.xml",
"news/article/Date",{sortOnLoad:"Date",sortOrderOnLoad:"ascending",distinctOnLoad:true});
ds1.setColumnType("Date", "date");
var ds1 = new Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("webinars.xml",
"news/article", { filterFunc: MyPagingFunc });
You are basically creating a ds1, setting the column type,
and then blowing away the original ds1 with a new one you create.
Which means your column type for Date is reset back to "string".
Delete ds1 creation code you don't want, and then place the
setColumnType() call after it.
It will then work as it should.
--== Kin ==--