Tags are shown in random order on dashboard

[pratik2rock]

The order of Tags shown on dashboard is not same as order in which tests are run and tags are assigned.

e.g. I have 4 test classes as Class1,Class2,Class3,Class4

Categories assigned in each class are
Class1 - Category1
Class2 - Category2
Class3 - Category3
Class4 - Category4

When these categories are shown on dashboard under section Tags, they are not shown in same order as tests run i.e. from Class1 to Class4, instead the categories are shown in random order on dashboard.

[ptvelikov]

Is there any progress, analysis or updates on this issue? Is there a workaround? The problem is not only in the Tags section in the Dashboard, but in the Category view, also. There is no logic in the ordering of the Tags/Categories, each time they are ordered randomly. Is there a way to force them to order by name or by time?

I have tried making a custom method for reordering the categories just before the flush.

public static void sortCategoriesInReport() {
        if (extent == null) {
            logger.warn("ExtentReports instance is null. Skipping category sorting.");
            return;
        }

        Set<NamedAttributeContext<Category>> categorySet = extent.getReport().getCategoryCtx().getSet();

        // Convert to sorted list
        List<NamedAttributeContext<Category>> sortedCategories = categorySet.stream()
                .sorted(Comparator.comparing(c -> c.getAttr().getName(), String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER))
                .toList(); 

        // Clear and re-add sorted categories in bulk
        categorySet.clear();
        categorySet.addAll(sortedCategories); // Bulk add instead of iteration

        // Print sorted categories
        String sortedCategoryNames = sortedCategories.stream()
                .map(c -> c.getAttr().getName())
                .collect(Collectors.joining(", "));

        logger.info("Categories sorted successfully: {}", sortedCategoryNames);
    }

calling it in another class like this:

// Finalize and flush the ExtentReports
        ExtentReportManager.sortCategoriesInReport();
        extent.flush();
        logger.info("Test execution completed. Report generated.");

the result of the method is:

2025-03-18 15:40:02 INFO t.reports.ExtentReportManager - Categories sorted successfully: 001-LoginPageSuite, 002-MaintenanceSuite, 003-ConfigurationSuite, 004-DealerAdminSuite, 005-UserManagementSuite 2025-03-18 15:40:02 INFO executors.BaseTestExecutor - Test execution completed. Report generated.

which means that the ordering works, but i was not able to find proper set method to write the ordered values to the report back.

Additionally, most probably the flush itself refreshes the ordering in the "Report" class and specifically in the "public final void refresh()" method - https://github.com/extent-framework/extentreports-java/blob/master/src/main/java/com/aventstack/extentreports/model/Report.java