How to sort by title using Search API / fuzzy search?

Question

In d7 i'm using fuzzysearch together with a table view for a quite long list of contacts. So far this works quite well – searching for "Mill" will list all "Miller" entries. Problem is: there is no option for sorting the results other than by relevance, ID, content type, random or PHP.

It would be great if the table was sortable by any of the fields – like it is possible in a regular table view – or at least by the title field. I'm not sure if I'm missing something – or if this is anyways not possible?

These are all the option I currently have in the sorting section of the table view:

(sorry, screenshot is partly in german)

All pointers / hints gladly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

Finally I got it working – here is how:

Search and metadata » Search API » fuzzysearch index » filter

First I checked the option "Aggregated fields" in the top section "Data alterations". Then I added an aggregated field that I called "Sort Name" pulling data from the field "Name".

Then I added that field to the list of indexed fields in the tab "fields". It is important to change the field type to "string" – otherwise the field won't be available for sorting.

Then finally the field should be available for sorting from the "Sort by" dialogue inside the views form.

The third paragraph of the accepted answer to the question "I have no fields available for sorting with Search API sorts module" pointed me in the right direction: "If a field is full-text, one trick is to create an aggregated field containing just that field and assign it a string type."

…I hope this may help somebody sometime…