Often, you want to retrieve multiple instances of a given entity and list them
in a particular order. The service.xml file lets you specify the default order
of your entities.
Suppose you want to return BookmarksEntry entities alphabetically by name.
It’s easy to specify these default orderings using Liferay Dev Studio DXP.
-
Switch back to Overview mode in the
service.xmlfile editor. -
Select the Order node under the entity node in the outline on the left side of the view. The IDE displays a form for ordering the chosen entity.
-
Check the Specify ordering checkbox to show the form for specifying the ordering.
-
Create an order column by clicking the Add icon (
) to the right of the table.
-
Enter the column name (e.g., name, date, etc.) to use in ordering the entity.
-
Click the Browse icon (
) to the right of the By field and choose the asc or desc option. This orders the entity in ascending or descending order.
Now that you know how to order your service entities, the last thing to do is to define the finder methods for retrieving entity instances from the database.