HouseHoldKeaper/.planning/phases/07-task-sorting/07-CONTEXT.md

Phase 7: Task Sorting - Context

Gathered: 2026-03-16 Status: Ready for planning

## Phase Boundary

Add sort controls to task list screens so users can reorder tasks by name (alphabetical), frequency interval, or effort level. The sort preference persists across app restarts. Requirements: SORT-01, SORT-02, SORT-03.

## Implementation Decisions

Sort control widget

• Dropdown button in the AppBar, right side (trailing actions position)
• When collapsed, shows the current sort name as text (e.g., "A-Z", "Intervall", "Aufwand")
• Expands to show the 3 sort options as a standard dropdown menu

Sort option labels

• Claude's discretion — pick German labels that fit the app's existing localization style (concise but clear)

Sort scope

• One global sort preference applies to all task list screens
• Same dropdown appears in both the home screen (CalendarDayList) and per-room (TaskListScreen) AppBars

Persistence

• Store the sort preference in SharedPreferences (simple key-value for a single enum)
• No database schema change needed
• Persists across app restarts per success criteria

Default sort

• Claude's discretion — pick the least disruptive default (likely alphabetical to match current CalendarDayList behavior)

Claude's Discretion

• Sort option label text (German, concise)
• Default sort order (recommend alphabetical for continuity)
• Whether TaskListScreen also gets the dropdown (recommend yes for consistency with global setting, since the success criteria says "task list screens" plural)
• Sort direction (always ascending — A-Z, daily→yearly, low→high — no toggle needed for MVP)
• Dropdown styling (Material 3 DropdownButton or PopupMenuButton variant)
• Sort icon or visual indicator in the dropdown
• How overdue section interacts with sorting (recommend: overdue section stays pinned at top regardless of sort, only day tasks are sorted)

## Specific Ideas

No specific requirements — open to standard approaches that match existing app patterns.

<code_context>

Existing Code Insights

Reusable Assets

• EffortLevel enum (low/medium/high) with .index for ordering — directly usable for effort sort
• IntervalType enum with .index ordered roughly by frequency (daily=0 through yearly=7) — usable for interval sort
• FrequencyInterval.presets list ordered most-frequent to least — reference for sort order
• Task.name field — direct alphabetical sort target
• CalendarDayList and TaskListScreen — the two list widgets that need sort integration
• AppLocalizations + .arb files — existing German localization pipeline

Established Patterns

• Manual StreamProvider.autoDispose for drift types (riverpod_generator issue) — sort provider follows same pattern
• calendarDayProvider watches selectedDateProvider — can also watch a sort preference provider
• tasksInRoomProvider family provider — can be extended with sort parameter or read global sort
• Feature folder structure: features/home/, features/tasks/ — sort logic may live in a shared location or in each feature

Integration Points

• HomeScreen AppBar — add dropdown to trailing actions
• TaskListScreen AppBar — already has edit/delete actions; add dropdown alongside
• CalendarDao.watchTasksForDate() — currently sorts alphabetically; needs sort-aware query or in-memory sort
• TasksDao.watchTasksInRoom() — currently sorts by nextDueDate; needs sort-aware query or in-memory sort
• SharedPreferences — not yet used in the app; needs package addition and provider setup
• app_de.arb — add localization strings for sort labels

</code_context>

## Deferred Ideas

None — discussion stayed within phase scope

---

Phase: 07-task-sorting Context gathered: 2026-03-16