Load zc_plugin directories in a predictable order

[lat9]

Currently, zc_plugin files are loaded in the order in which they were installed, leading to an unpredictable load order.

This PR loads them, instead, by sorting the installed plugins' unique_key.

[drbyte]

I gather that the intent of this load-order change is specific to "booting up" the (installed) plugins on page-load.

The Admin UI for Plugin Manager would require a different change for actually sorting the list of displayed "available, whether 'installed' or not" plugins:
@zcwilt ... would changing PluginManagerDataSource.php be safe (no undesired side-effects in other lookups?), done this way?:

    protected function buildInitialQuery() : Builder
    {
-        return (new PluginControl())->query();
+        return (new PluginControl())->query()->orderBy('name')->orderBy('unique_key');
    }

[zcwilt]

@drbyte I have no issue with that change, although see no benefit in it, had always wanted to get back to the ViewBuiolderrs stuff to tidy up and add sort filters etc.

[zcwilt]

as for the overall change, I would ask, what problem is this solving. What use cases mean we need to load plugins in a this specific order.

Just to be clear. I agree that there maybe specific reason you want a plugin to load before another plugin,
I can imagine a plugin that provides a set of utility classes that another plugin might want to use and not have to re-implement them.

I did consider writing code to do some kind of dependency check based on a manifest entry, but at that point you are pretty much writing a custom Composer clone when why not just use Composer.
(Well apart from then having to have Service Provider classes, DI containers blah blah)

[lat9]

Mostly thinking about language-file load order. Granted, plugins shouldn't be supplying the same filenames, but just in case there's a rogue this change ensures that the result is the same from site to site, regardless the order in which the plugins were installed.

[lat9]

I gather that the intent of this load-order change is specific to "booting up" the (installed) plugins on page-load.

The Admin UI for Plugin Manager would require a different change for actually sorting the list of displayed "available, whether 'installed' or not" plugins: @zcwilt ... would changing PluginManagerDataSource.php be safe (no undesired side-effects in other lookups?), done this way?:

    protected function buildInitialQuery() : Builder
    {
-        return (new PluginControl())->query();
+        return (new PluginControl())->query()->orderBy('name')->orderBy('unique_key');
    }

That was also what I was looking for (too many buried classes). Without that change, the Plugin Manager displays the plugins in the order in which they were installed:

With that change, they're now displayed alphabetically:

[drbyte]

That was also what I was looking for (too many buried classes). Without that change, the Plugin Manager displays the "plugins in the order in which they were installed":

Clarification, because "installed" is a multifaceted word; so I think what you meant was: "... displays the plugins in the order they were added to the filesystem"

[scottcwilson]

Is this ready to be merged?

[lat9]

Is this ready to be merged?

In my opinion, Yes.