Sort library by updated and added

[shakeyourbunny]

Problem description

I'm missing a sorting option by last updated and added (new games to the library).

Also, add a "check for updates" button please.

Feature description

These Sorting options should be added (in both directions):

• sort by last updated ( metadata is present in the respective libraries
• sort by last games added.

Alternatives

No response

Additional information

No response

[davcri]

I think "sort by last game added" would be a nice feature. However as I user a never missed the "sort by last updated", could you provide an example of a real use case scenario?

[shakeyourbunny]

Well, to put it simply, if you would have the "sort by updated" scenarios would be:

• getting to know when a game has been updated, so I can easily see what games I have to do a new backup of said version.

• another thing is that if games have new features and / or bugfixes I'm waiting for it, so I can see that, even there is no changelog, but in the news that game XY has been updated and fixed bugs? If you have more than a handful games, manually checking them so often gets annoying really fast.

The last update stamps are already in the downloaded metafiles of epic & amazon (I checked that) and GOG I think they should have that too.

In addition - if a changelog for a game is available - (most likely GOG) it should be available directly to read within Heroic Launcher.

[arielj]

the order by date the game was added was discussed many times, the stores don't really provide that information for us to use it so we can't order by that date (they display that information somewhere on their sites, but the tools and endpoints we have don't expose that information at all)

[shakeyourbunny]

the order by date the game was added was discussed many times, the stores don't really provide that information for us to use it so we can't order by that date (they display that information somewhere on their sites, but the tools and endpoints we have don't expose that information at all)

I didn't mean, when the game was added on the store, but when the game was added locally to the Heroic Launcher's library. That would suffice and is easily tracked. My suggestion was that you should be able to sort on that information in both directions.

[arielj]

the order by date the game was added was discussed many times, the stores don't really provide that information for us to use it so we can't order by that date (they display that information somewhere on their sites, but the tools and endpoints we have don't expose that information at all)

I didn't mean, when the game was added on the store, but when the game was added locally to the Heroic Launcher's library. That would suffice and is easily tracked. My suggestion was that you should be able to sort on that information in both directions.

that's precisely the information we don't have, when the game was added to your library

someone once proposed keep track of the date a new game is found locally but that's not how it works and it would only work for games since the feature is added, we would need a solution with the stores providing that information in a way we can use it to make this feature make sense

[shakeyourbunny]

that's precisely the information we don't have, when the game was added to your library

So, the information, when Heroic Launcher scans a users library and records the time, when it was locally added to the list of games is not possible to obtain?

How odd that Playnite has not that problem, recording the timestamp, when a game was added to its library.

[shakeyourbunny]

To make that clear:

• I'm not asking that Heroic Launcher should have a sort setting, that can sort by any metadata or should be the same as Playnite.
• I'm not asking for a sort setting that sorts by release date / added date of the source library (Epic, GOG, Amazon). You can STILL find that in the metadata you obtain and Heroic Launcher EVEN displays that in the game information screen.
• I'm asking for a sort setting that records the date and time a game has been added to the local library and NOT when the game has been made available in its respective source library.

The latter one is really handy if you hit the the update / sync button on the right side, to read in your new purchases and don't have to go hunt for it in the library, if you set your sort settings in a way that newly added games TO THE LOCAL LIBRARY are displayed first, ie "sort by date added to the library, descending".

that's precisely the information we don't have, when the game was added to your library

That is obtainable, if you parse the account transactions, but I'm not asking for that.

[arielj]

I understood the request, and like I said, only tracking when the game is found for the first time locally will only work for the games heroic sees for the first time after the feature is implemented and all the games you own prior to that won't have a date (or would all have the same date), and I can already imagine bug reports saying "the sort by that added to the library is not working correctly". Then someone opens Heroic for the first time in another machine and the information is gone and they'll think the sorting is working in one place and not in the other.

I don't know what playnite uses for that, maybe they just do that, when they see a new game they put a timestamp on it and that's it, but I don't think it's a good solution if that's the case (sure, it might work for some people and some cases, but if we can know when the game was added to the account then we would have a proper solution that works for everyone).

Actually parsing the account's transactions would be a solution for this problem, but I don't think the API endpoints we know about provide that information.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying we wouldn't accept a feature like this if it works correctly, but somebody has to find the right way to do it (and I personally think using just the date heroic sees a game for the first time will be confusing to people unless it's super clear in the UI)

[shakeyourbunny]

I understood the request, and like I said, only tracking when the game is found for the first time locally will only work for the games heroic sees for the first time after the feature is implemented and all the games you own prior to that won't have a date (or would all have the same date), and I can already imagine bug reports saying "the sort by that added to the library is not working correctly". Then someone opens Heroic for the first time in another machine and the information is gone and they'll think the sorting is working in one place and not in the other.

Well, the existing games just get a timestamp when that theoretical new version of HL starts and/or the local library data is updated. I understand your concerns regarding of user complaints in that direction, but in the Playnite community I never heard such things in that regard.

Purchase date, Release date and Added to the local library are three distinct different timestamps.

I don't know what playnite uses for that, maybe they just do that, when they see a new game they put a timestamp on it and that's it,

Exactly, Playnite does nothing else.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying we wouldn't accept a feature like this if it works correctly, but somebody has to find the right way to do it (and I personally think using just the date heroic sees a game for the first time will be confusing to people unless it's super clear in the UI)

I understand your train of thought and I agree, that if such a thing gets added, it should be very clear that it is just the timestamp, when a new game got added to the library.

An alternative would be a filter that lists the most recent 10 (configurable) games that got added to the local library or expand the "Played Recently" panel with a drop down, where you can switch between "played most recently" and "added most recently to heroic launcher".

Maybe the latter would be the better choice to make it clear, that these games have been added recently and also add to the release notes and documentation, that the added date gets reset if you switch installations and/or do the initial load with the new version.

[shakeyourbunny]

a (bad) mockup for the last suggestion: