# Sort order for Actors

**URL:** <http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782>\
**Category:** Arbil\
**Created:** [30 September 2012 23:55 UTC](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782 "2012-09-30T23:55:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jdhmpi-nl](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@jdhmpi-nl](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/u/jdhmpi-nl)\
**Post date:** [30 September 2012 23:55 UTC](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782/1 "2012-09-30T23:55:46Z")

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I think this had already been discussed elsewhere, but I would be really great to be able to control the order in which the actors are written to the IMDI file (and thus online). It would be nice to be able to do that globally (establish a order depending on the role, speaker always first, then interviewer, recorder, annotator, translator for example) but if that takes longer to implement maybe it’s possible to do it manually in Arbil (I know I can edit the IMDI file in an XML editor but that’s tedious and easy to mess up).

Thanks,

Jan

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**Author:** ![system](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/uploads/default/original/1X/6598208d1bd4277f5b804bc35738b7ec56827281.png) [@system](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/u/system)\
**Post date:** [2 October 2012 17:31 UTC](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782/2 "2012-10-02T17:31:31Z")

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Most IMDI applications display the actors in alphabetical order. As a result of this, defining the xml node order for actors is not supported in Arbil. There is also no guarantee that this node oder will be preserved in all applications. Which tool are you using to view these files?

regards,  
Peter

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**Author:** ![jdhmpi-nl](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@jdhmpi-nl](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/u/jdhmpi-nl)\
**Post date:** [2 October 2012 19:16 UTC](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782/3 "2012-10-02T19:16:11Z")

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Hi Peter,  
thanks for your answer.  
I am actually referring to the way they are displayed in the IMDI browser. The IMDI browser just renders the imdi file in whatever order the imdi file has been written, not alphabetically, and Arbil writes the actors to the imdi file just as they are entered.  
Therefore it would be really great if one could control the way in which Arbil writes the actors to the imdi file.  
That’s why it would be really great to be able to control this in arbil.  
If there was a way to set that up globally it would be even better, let’s say to tell Arbil to always write speakers or authors first, interviewers second etc.  
Thanks,  
Jan

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**Author:** ![system](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/uploads/default/original/1X/6598208d1bd4277f5b804bc35738b7ec56827281.png) [@system](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/u/system)\
**Post date:** [4 October 2012 11:26 UTC](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782/4 "2012-10-04T11:26:53Z")

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Hi Jan,

I have created a new ticket and updated some existing tickets related to this, which should address your issue.  
However, I am not sure when they will be resolved.

Peter

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**Author:** ![tla\_admin](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/user_avatar/archive.mpi.nl/tla_admin/32/152_2.png) [@tla\_admin](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/u/tla_admin)\
**Post date:** [25 November 2021 09:12 UTC](http://archive.mpi.nl/forums/t/sort-order-for-actors/1782/5 "2021-11-25T09:12:41Z")

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