[bpamiri]

Summary

findAll(order="createdAt desc") sorted ascending. $orderByClause() looked for the direction with case-sensitive Find(" ASC") / Find(" DESC"), so a lowercase or mixed-case direction wasn't seen and " ASC" was appended (model/sql.cfm:262).

The same parser serves all the paths below, so the fix covers each of them:

• findAll() / findOne(): order="id desc" sorted ascending.
• Paginated finders (findAll(page=..., perPage=...)): the same.
• A table.column desc item: it became table.column desc ASC and threw Wheels.InvalidOrderClause, because the dot-notation check is also case-sensitive.
• The query builder's orderBy("id", "desc"): it validated the direction case-insensitively and then built "id desc", so it too sorted ascending.

Change

• vendor/wheels/model/sql.cfm: each order item goes through a new $normalizeOrderItem().
  • Runs of whitespace (spaces, tabs) become one space.
  • A trailing asc / desc is read in any case and emitted in upper case.
  • An item without a direction sorts ascending, as before.
  • The rest of $orderByClause() is unchanged. The dot-notation check and SQL Server's paginated ORDER BY reversal then always see an upper-case direction.
• vendor/wheels/model/query/QueryBuilder.cfc: orderBy() stores the direction in upper case.
• I checked the other places that read order strings: read.cfm:90 (ReplaceNoCase) and the adapter's $columnAlias() (CFML == is case-insensitive) were already case-insensitive.
• Changelog: a fixed fragment.

Tests

New vendor/wheels/tests/specs/model/orderDirectionCaseSpec.cfc:

• desc / Desc / dEsC / DESC all sort descending;
• asc / Asc / ASC and no direction all sort ascending;
• repeated spaces, a tab, and surrounding spaces;
• a multi-column lastName asc, id desc matches the uppercase form;
• a table.column desc item;
• a paginated finder;
• the query builder's orderBy("id", "desc").

RED (develop, Lucee 7 + SQLite): 4 failed and 1 errored. Lowercase sorts ascending in the plain, whitespace, paginated and query-builder cases, and the table.column desc case errors with Invalid dot-notation in ORDER BY clause.

GREEN, model directory (pass / fail / error; orderDirectionCaseSpec 7/7 on every leg):

Engine	SQLite	MySQL	PostgreSQL	SQL Server
BoxLang	1402 / 0 / 0	1445 / 0 / 0	1428 / 0 / 0	1457 / 0 / 0
Lucee 7	1402 / 0 / 0	1451 / 0 / 0	1428 / 0 / 0	1457 / 0 / 0
Lucee 6	1402 / 0 / 0	1451 / 0 / 0	1428 / 0 / 0	1457 / 0 / 0
Adobe ColdFusion 2023	1399 / 0 / 0	1442 / 0 / 0	1425 / 0 / 0	1454 / 0 / 0
Adobe ColdFusion 2025	1399 / 0 / 0	1442 / 0 / 0	1425 / 0 / 0	1454 / 0 / 0

• Full core suite, Lucee 7 + SQLite: 6808 passed.
• internal specs: 113 passed.
• RustCFML model directory: 1395 / 0 / 0, with the new spec 7/7.
• Complexity gate: passes.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[bpamiri]

Review @ 2938265: source looks good. Final verdict after matrix 37328749853 and PR CI

What was wrong

• $orderByClause() checked Find(" ASC") / Find(" DESC"), which is case-sensitive. So id desc got ASC appended (id desc ASC), and the later UCase(ListLast(item, " ")) read ASC: a silent ascending sort.
• On the dot-notation path, the guard regex (\s+(ASC|DESC))?$ is matched with case-sensitive REFind, so table.id desc threw Wheels.InvalidOrderClause.

The fix

• $normalizeOrderItem() collapses whitespace runs (spaces, tabs) and trims. A trailing token that ListFindNoCase("ASC,DESC") accepts is upper-cased; otherwise ASC is appended, and a lone word (even a column literally named desc) is treated as the property.
• Everything downstream now sees … ASC / … DESC in upper case:
  • the dot-notation regex passes;
  • UCase(ListLast(…)) emits the right direction;
  • the SQL Server pagination reversal (MicrosoftSQLServerModel :835) and Base.cfc :376/:444 work on that upper-case output.
• orderBy("id", "desc") already passed the case-insensitive $validateDirection() and now emits DESC.
• No new surface is accepted. Items with ( are still rejected, the dot-notation regex is unchanged, and anything after the direction (for example NULLS LAST) was never supported and still isn't.

Spec (orderDirectionCaseSpec, 7 cases) covers:

• desc / DESC / Desc and the asc variants, including no direction;
• repeated spaces, a tab, and surrounding whitespace;
• a multi-column order checked against the upper-case equivalent;
• table.column desc;
• a paginated finder, which exercises the SQL Server reversal on that leg;
• orderBy("id", "desc").

No findings. On the matrix I'll read orderDirectionCaseSpec and the model directory on every leg, with SQL Server pagination closest, plus PR CI.

[github-actions]

Wheels Test Results

222 804 tests   217 683 ✅  1h 24m 8s ⏱️
 17 344 suites    5 121 💤
     32 files          0 ❌

Results for commit 2938265.

[bpamiri]

Final: APPROVE @ 2938265 (matrix 37328749853, all 32 legs read; PR CI read)

Matrix

• 32/32 legs have 0 fail, 0 error, and every job succeeded, including rustcfml and the Compatibility Matrix Gate.
• orderDirectionCaseSpec passes 7/7 with 0 skipped on every leg (lucee6, lucee7, adobe2023, adobe2025, boxlang × every database). That includes:
  • all five Oracle legs;
  • all five SQL Server legs, where "reads a lowercase direction in a paginated finder" exercises the pagination ORDER BY reversal.
• So every order-parsing path the spec drives returns the right direction on every engine and database: plain and paginated findAll(), table.column desc, multi-column orders with a direction per item, and orderBy("id", "desc").
• The rest of the model directory is green everywhere. No double direction was emitted: an id desc ASC-style item would be a SQL syntax error on every database.
• Skips. The skipped specs on lucee7-sqlserver, adobe2023-oracle and boxlang-mysql are identical to a recent develop-based run (refactor(model): drop the redundant abort rollback from the transactional advisory-lock body #4338's final matrix 37316988407).

PR CI: 17 pass, 3 skipping, 0 fail, 0 pending.

The fixed fragment is accurate. No open findings.