feat: Add sort order to cohorts endpoint

[brianjbuck-wgu]

Description

Adds alphabetical ordering to the GET /api/cohorts/v1/courses/{course_id}/cohorts/ endpoint. Previously, the response order was non-deterministic (database insertion order). Cohorts are now returned in ascending alphabetical order by name by default, with an optional ordering query parameter to control sort direction.

Changes:

• get_course_cohorts() now accepts an ordering parameter ('asc' or 'desc', default 'asc') and applies ORDER BY name to the queryset. All callers benefit from deterministic ordering.
• CohortHandler.GET reads the ?ordering=asc|desc query parameter, validates it, and passes it through. Returns HTTP 400 for invalid values.

User roles impacted: Developers and Operators consuming the cohorts API. No UI changes.

Supporting information

• GitHub Issue: Order alphabetically Cohorts #38119
• Related frontend ticket: Ticket – Manage Learners frontend-app-instruct#52

Testing instructions

1. Create a course with several cohorts whose names are out of alphabetical order.
2. GET /api/cohorts/v1/courses/{course_id}/cohorts/ — verify cohorts are returned A→Z.
3. GET /api/cohorts/v1/courses/{course_id}/cohorts/?ordering=desc — verify cohorts are returned Z→A.
4. GET /api/cohorts/v1/courses/{course_id}/cohorts/?ordering=invalid — verify HTTP 400 is returned.

Deadline

None

Other information

• No database migrations required.
• This is a non-breaking change. Existing callers without the ordering param will now receive cohorts in ascending alphabetical order, which is an improvement over the previous non-deterministic ordering. No response schema changes.
• A v2 endpoint was considered but deemed unnecessary since this is purely an ordering improvement with no schema changes.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds deterministic alphabetical sorting to the cohorts list endpoint (GET /api/cohorts/v1/courses/{course_id}/cohorts/) by default, and introduces an ordering=asc|desc query parameter to control sort direction.

Changes:

• Adds ordering query param handling in CohortHandler.GET, returning HTTP 400 for invalid values.
• Extends cohorts.get_course_cohorts() with an ordering argument and applies ORDER BY name.
• Adds API tests covering default ascending order, descending order, and invalid ordering behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/views.py	Parses/validates ordering query param and passes it to cohort retrieval.
openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/cohorts.py	Adds ordering parameter and orders cohort queryset by name.
openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/tests/test_api_views.py	Adds tests validating ordering behavior and invalid input handling.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/cohorts.py:337

• get_course_cohorts accepts both course and course_id, but the docstring’s Arguments section doesn’t mention course_id. Please document course_id (and clarify the XOR requirement) to keep the signature and docs consistent.

def get_course_cohorts(course=None, course_id=None, assignment_type=None, ordering='asc'):
    """
    Get a list of all the cohorts in the given course. This will include auto cohorts,
    regardless of whether or not the auto cohorts include any users.

    Arguments:
        course: the course for which cohorts should be returned
        assignment_type: cohort assignment type
        ordering: sort direction for results by name ('asc' or 'desc'), defaults to 'asc'

    Returns:
        A list of CourseUserGroup objects. Empty if there are no cohorts. Does
        not check whether the course is cohorted.
    """
    assert bool(course) ^ bool(course_id), "course or course_id required"
    # Migrate cohort settings for this course

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

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