feat: Sort conversations by updated_at desc

[KinWang130]

Checklist:

Important

Please review the checklist below before submitting your pull request.

• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I ran dev/pr(backend) and cd web && npx lint-staged(frontend) to appease the lint gods

Description

In the process of using dify for conversations, the historical conversation records are always sorted in descending order according to the time of session creation. Normally, they should be sorted according to the latest time of conversation messages.
My optimization is to modify the updated_at of the conversation during the conversation, and sort the conversation list in descending order based on the updated_at. This way, users can see the latest list of session messages.

Fixes #7338

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• This change requires a documentation update, included: Dify Document
• Improvement, including but not limited to code refactoring, performance optimization, and UI/UX improvement
• Dependency upgrade

Testing Instructions

Please describe the tests that you ran to verify your changes. Provide instructions so we can reproduce. Please also list any relevant details for your test configuration

• Initiate a new conversation, with the new conversation at the forefront
• The conversation list is sorted based on the latest time of the conversation content

[laipz8200]

I think sorting by creation time is reasonable because it ensures the relative order of items in the list remains unchanged. Do you have a more compelling argument for sorting by update time?

[KinWang130]

I think sorting by creation time is reasonable because it ensures the relative order of items in the list remains unchanged. Do you have a more compelling argument for sorting by update time?

Of course, sorting by creation time can ensure that the relative order remains unchanged, but in most conversational applications such as GPT, WeChat, Telegram, etc., conversations are always sorted by the latest conversation messages. My optimization reasons are as follows:

1. Updated_at is always unchanged. When a new message is generated in a conversation or the conversation name is modified, updated_at should be updated, otherwise it is meaningless
2. Each conversation may generate a theme, and when users generate new messages in each conversation, I believe they want the conversation to be prioritized, which is very user-friendly
   What's your opinion?

[laipz8200]

I think sorting by creation time is reasonable because it ensures the relative order of items in the list remains unchanged. Do you have a more compelling argument for sorting by update time?

Of course, sorting by creation time can ensure that the relative order remains unchanged, but in most conversational applications such as GPT, WeChat, Telegram, etc., conversations are always sorted by the latest conversation messages. My optimization reasons are as follows:

1. Updated_at is always unchanged. When a new message is generated in a conversation or the conversation name is modified, updated_at should be updated, otherwise it is meaningless

2. Each conversation may generate a theme, and when users generate new messages in each conversation, I believe they want the conversation to be prioritized, which is very user-friendly
   What's your opinion?

I think it would be great to support both options. How about we add a sort_by parameter to the API? That way, we could pass sort_by=-updated_at to sort by updated_at in descending order.

[leslie2046]

+1
#7338
I think the conversation list on the left side of the webui should be sorted by 'updated_at'
And the log list in the console should also be sorted by updated_at. When we check the logs every day, we hope to only look at the current day's logs without having to repeatedly review the sessions we have already seen yesterday.

[KinWang130]

I think sorting by creation time is reasonable because it ensures the relative order of items in the list remains unchanged. Do you have a more compelling argument for sorting by update time?

Of course, sorting by creation time can ensure that the relative order remains unchanged, but in most conversational applications such as GPT, WeChat, Telegram, etc., conversations are always sorted by the latest conversation messages. My optimization reasons are as follows:

1. Updated_at is always unchanged. When a new message is generated in a conversation or the conversation name is modified, updated_at should be updated, otherwise it is meaningless

2. Each conversation may generate a theme, and when users generate new messages in each conversation, I believe they want the conversation to be prioritized, which is very user-friendly
   What's your opinion?

I think it would be great to support both options. How about we add a sort_by parameter to the API? That way, we could pass sort_by=-updated_at to sort by updated_at in descending order.

Of course, the code I have submitted has already solved the two issues mentioned above.And it has been tested and the results are correct

1. Update the updated_at field of the session when generating new messages or renaming the session name
2. Retrieve the conversation list in descending order based on updated_at

[laipz8200]

Hi @KinWang130! Apologies for the lack of clarity earlier. We would like to support the option to specify the sorting method in the web service API. Instead of directly changing the current sorting method, we aim to allow users to choose their preferred sorting method by adding a button in the frontend. Would you be willing to implement this feature?

[KinWang130]

Hi @KinWang130! Apologies for the lack of clarity earlier. We would like to support the option to specify the sorting method in the web service API. Instead of directly changing the current sorting method, we aim to allow users to choose their preferred sorting method by adding a button in the frontend. Would you be willing to implement this feature?

I am honored to assist you in implementing this feature. My newly submitted code now supports sort_by parameter sorting, including web and API interfaces. The parameter examples are as follows:
created_at: Ascending by creation time
-created_at: Sort by creation time in descending order
updated_at: Ascending by update time
-updated_at: Sort by update time in descending order
Because I am a backend developer, I am sorry that I cannot provide frontend code implementation. in addition
My personal suggestion is not to provide a sorting button on the conversation list page to affect its appearance. You can refer to the chat app on the market. If necessary, the sort_by parameter can be modified through the application API to achieve custom sorting of conversations

[laipz8200]

@KinWang130 Thank you very much for your contribution! We plan to add sorting options on the logs page and use the default order on the chat page. Due to the need for design and front-end development, the merging of this PR might be slightly delayed.

Additionally, please check the CI errors.

[laipz8200]

You can run dev/reformat to fix the most lint errors automatically.

[leslie2046]

@laipz8200
#7338
My issue will be resolved if we can sort by create_at or update_at in logs page ,thank you!

[KinWang130]

You can run dev/reformat to fix the most lint errors automatically.

OK，Thanks

[crazywoola]

@laipz8200

[laipz8200]

Thanks for your contribution!