How FreeITSM puts a saved order on top of a list that keeps growing - the personal module order and the shared Watchtower card order - and the reorder control both use. Introduced for issue #187.

User-facing: Watchtower Settings → Cards and Preferences → Display → Module order (see System).

displayOrderMerge():

1. the saved keys that still exist, in the saved order;
2. then every key the saved order does not mention, in its default order.

What that gives you, without any migration ever:

• A new module or card (added in a later release) appears for everybody who has saved an order, in its default place relative to the other keys they have not ordered.
• A removed one drops out of the saved order silently.
• Junk - unknown keys, duplicates, non-strings, a hand-edited row - degrades to the default order instead of losing anything.

It is the PHP twin of applyColumnConfig() in assets/js/data-table.js, which has kept saved table views working across new columns.

Ordering always happens over every key, before anything is hidden. Two consequences:

• Order never grants anything. Every launcher filters exactly as it did before #187.
• A hidden entry keeps its place. A module the analyst cannot open today, or a card switched off or unavailable, sits in its saved slot and reappears there when it comes back.

The Preferences screen relies on this: the list shows only the modules the analyst can open, and on save the new visible order is written back into the slots the visible modules already held (withHidden() in system/preferences/index.php), so the others never move.

analystVisibleModules($modules) returns the modules this analyst may open, ordered, with the existing filter applied once:

• System only for administrators;
• everything else only if it is in $_SESSION['allowed_modules'] (null = all);
• a Forms approver without Forms gets its approvals inbox ('approvals' => true on that entry).

Four launchers draw from it, so they cannot disagree:

The home page no longer needs editing: add the module to $modules (in its default place) and it appears in all four launchers, and in every saved order, on its own. The other steps are in Module Access - Developer Guide.

wtCardRegistry() is now the one card list - key => [element, module]:

• wtCardKeys() is derived from it;
• the dashboard's WT_CARD_ELEMENTS is printed from it;
• the settings screen's CARD_MODULE (each card's colour) is printed from it - the hand-kept copy had already missed Projects;
• tests/display-order.php checks every entry has its element on the dashboard and a module colour, and that every card on the dashboard is in the list.

The dashboard moves the cards, it does not restyle them: a small script right after the grid appends each card element to the grid in the saved order, before the page first paints. CSS order would have put the keyboard and a screen reader out of step with what is on screen. Hidden and unavailable cards are moved too, so they keep their place. It runs once - the five-minute refresh fills cards in and never redraws the grid.

Refusing, not ignoring. save_settings.php used to skip silently any section the analyst had no permission for and still answer "saved". It now answers 403 when a section the analyst may not change is sent (cards with entries or card_order without the Cards permission; items or paused_hours without the Counts permission). The settings page only sends the sections whose tabs it draws, so an honest page never trips it.

assets/js/reorder-list.js - one control for every "choose the order" setting.

const rl = ReorderList.mount(containerEl, {
    items: [{ key: 'tickets', label: 'Tickets', icon: '<svg…>', iconClass: 'waffle-module-icon tickets' }, …],
    label: 'Module order',          // the list's accessible name
    onChange: keys => save(keys),   // after every completed move
});
rl.getOrder(); rl.setOrder(keys);   // setOrder does not call onChange

An item can carry html - its own row markup, escaped by the caller - in place of the label (Watchtower puts its show/hide tick box there). label stays its accessible name.

Three ways to move, because each fails somewhere the others work:

The list is real DOM order, so reading order and tab order match the screen. Styles are injected once per page from theme tokens, so dark mode follows. Labels come from common.reorder.*, with English fallbacks.

Saving is the caller's job. Preferences saves on every move, one request at a time, and puts the list back to the last saved order if a save fails (savePref() shows the error). Watchtower settings saves with its Save button, like everything else on that screen.

tests/display-order.php - no database:

• the merge rule (new keys, removed keys, duplicates, junk) and the parser;
• the Watchtower card list against the dashboard markup, the module colours and the labels, with a positive control;
• that the home page, the waffle (drawer and Ctrl+K) and the Files start menu all draw from analystVisibleModules().

php tests/display-order.php

The screens were verified in a real browser: module order saved, followed by all four launchers, kept the hidden modules' slots for an analyst with three modules, and Reset; card order saved, shown on the dashboard, Reset, and refused (403) for an analyst without the permission.

• Watchtower Settings - Developer Guide
• Module Access - Developer Guide
• Command Palette