Support sorting by a specific field in relationship fields (e.g. useAsTitle or designated field)

[jessrynkar]

Overview:

Currently, when sorting by a relationship field in the collection list view, Payload applies the sort using the related document's ID.
This can be confusing when it doesn't align with the useAsTitle value and is restrictive as it doesn't allow users to sort by their desired field.

Expected Behavior:

When sorting by a relationship field in the collection list view, Payload should:

• Sort by useAsTitle that has been defined in the related collection

AND/OR

• Allow developers to specify which field should be used for sorting within the related collection via a new config option

Why This Matters:

• Sorting by ID is not super meaningful to end users
• useAsTitle is already used to display the relationship value—sorting by it would align display>behavior and prevent confusion
• Many use cases involve alphabetical or date-based sorting (e.g. company names, created at dates) in related collections

Proposed Solution:

• Extend collection config with an optional sortByField or similar option
• Update the admin UI to respect this when rendering sortable columns
• Fall back to sorting by useAsTitle if sortByField is not defined

Current workaround

Since this new virtual field feature was introduced, you can utilize virtual fields easily to create a sortable entity for a relationship field. For a full example, see my response here.

Related Threads:

#3978 – Original discussion