[OODT-429] filemgr query throws NPE when sorting by key with possibly empty values

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.3
• Fix Version/s: 0.4
• Component/s: file manager
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Ricky Nguyen
• Created: 23/Mar/12 00:03
• Updated: 26/Mar/12 21:08
• Resolved: 26/Mar/12 16:23

Description

For a given met element, if any product has a null value, the entire sort fails with NPE.

We should decide whether nulls appear at the beginning or the end of such a sort. My vote is at the end, since nulls are usually the least interesting value.

However, consider the use case of sorting by ProductReceivedTime. Sort only occurs in ascending order (I am not aware of descending capability). If nulls appeared at the end, it would be slightly difficult to get the latest product (programmatically). For this type of sort, it would be useful to put nulls at the beginning, or even remove them altogether. Thoughts?