feat(sidebar): Add conversation sections and sort options

[Rikdekker]

Summary

Resolves #12025

• Custom sections: Users can create named sections to organize conversations in the sidebar. Sections can be created, renamed, deleted, and reordered via drag-and-drop in the "Manage sections" dialog.
• Sort options: Conversations can be sorted by recent activity (default), alphabetical order, or groups first. Sorting applies within each section independently.
• Section behavior: Favorites are always pinned at the top, unsectioned conversations appear in an "Other" group at the bottom. Sections are collapsible with unread count badges. Favorite and archived conversations cannot be assigned to a section.

Backend

• New talk_conversation_sections table with id, user_id, name, sort_order, collapsed columns
• New ConversationSectionController with full CRUD + reorder API (/api/v4/sections)
• New sectionId field on Attendee model to assign conversations to sections
• New capability: conversation-sections

Frontend

• New ConversationSectionHeader component for collapsible section headers
• New ManageSectionsDialog with drag-and-drop reordering
• New conversationSections Pinia store
• Sort mode selector with 3 options (activity, alphabetical, groups first)
• Sort mode and collapsed state persisted in browser storage

Screenshots

drop screenshots h

Test plan

• Create, rename, and delete sections via "Manage sections" dialog
• Assign conversations to sections via conversation context menu
• Reorder sections via drag-and-drop in "Manage sections"
• Collapse/expand sections, verify unread count badge shows on collapsed sections
• Switch between sort modes (activity, alphabetical, groups first)
• Verify favorites always appear at top, unsectioned in "Other" at bottom
• Verify sort mode persists across page refresh
• Verify section order persists across page refresh
• Verify favorite/archived conversations cannot be assigned to sections

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[nickvergessen]

This is a huge step 😎

However it will prevent a conversation from being in multiple sections, which we had planned. Not sure if it's better to merge like this already, or if we should try a second PR based on the current one that tries to make it possible to have 1toN mapping available

[nickvergessen]

Also to be able to review easier, we'd appreciate if you address comments in individual commits going forward. we can rebase and combine them at the end, but it avoids having to recheck the full diff all the time :)

[Rikdekker]

Thanks for the review! 🙏 Will address all comments in individual commits.

Regarding 1:1 vs 1:N section mapping:

I believe 1:1 is the right model for sections — they behave like folders, not labels. A few observations:

• UX clarity: Showing the same conversation in multiple sidebar sections would be confusing. Users naturally think "where is this?" (folder mental model), not "which labels does this have?" (tag mental model).
• Unread count ambiguity: With 1:N, the same unread message would inflate counts across multiple sections, making the sidebar misleading.
• Industry consensus: Slack, Discord, and Microsoft Teams all use 1:1 mapping for channel categories. None of them allow a channel to appear in multiple categories.
• Nextcloud own design confirms this: Favorites and sections are already mutually exclusive, the UI uses radio buttons (single select), and the sidebar assumes each conversation appears in one place.

If cross-cutting organization is ever needed, a separate tagging system would be more appropriate than multi-section — tags and folders solve fundamentally different problems.

Happy to discuss further if you see use cases I'm missing!

[nickvergessen]

after broken app update before the log level stayed on debug again

Well that is basically exactly the problem 😅
The label thinking comes from our very own company instance, where multiple members are in multiple groups, e.g. "Groupware team" and "Security experts". it would be good to be able to sort people into both at the same time, so you easily find them when checking for groupware as well as when checking for security.

a separate tagging system would be more appropriate than multi-section — tags and folders solve fundamentally different problems.

yeah, but you can have "folder behaviour" with tag API, but not the other way around.
And we will not have both, tags and folders, as that is too confusing UX-wise.

the sidebar assumes each conversation appears in one place.

This can be adjusted of course.

---

I'll discuss it with the team next week

[nickvergessen]

Frontend

• we are migrating away from Vuex store, sortMode implementation can be moved to Pinia store settings.ts

• UI: Filter + Sort buttons taking too much space, we can merge them into single entry point, with NcActionSeparator inside. Shared icon could be https://pictogrammers.com/library/mdi/icon/filter-cog-outline/ or https://pictogrammers.com/library/mdi/icon/filter-variant/

Design

• Having a separate "Manage sections" entry at the bottom is lessening the already reduced vertical space, instead we can have a 3 dot menu button that appears on hover, with edit/reorder/delete which leads to the modal with that section in an editable state
  Sample from mail app: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/41903e40-116c-4871-a288-e3442ef9749c

• It seems the headers are not using our components

• In the "Manage sections" modal
  

  • each item seems to be taller than usual? Possibly it's 44px instead of default clickable area.
  • To create a new section feels not accessible and inconsistent with how it's usually done in NC (lack of a button, only a text field with a placeholder, etc), we should add an explicit button, and then a text field
  • There should also be "move up" and "move down" buttons in the 3 dot menu for a11y

• Wording should be category / tag / label instead of "section"

---

We can also take over the Pull Request to address the feedback ourselves in case it's too much for you.

[nickvergessen]

Our plan would be instead of int make this a TEXT type column and store a json encoded array with the applicable section ids

[nickvergessen]

This capability is just here in the docs but not available in the Capabilities.php
Either we clean it up and keep sorting BrowserStorage-only, or implement it via user preferences like config => chat => style currently works.

[nickvergessen]

The team brought up that it feel like activity + alphabetical and type-first are two different categories - sorting and grouping, and users e.g. might want to combine 'groups first' or 'private first' with 'alphabetical' or 'activity'. Maybe we can store them as separate preferences, or a tuple.

[Rikdekker]

Thank you for the thorough review @nickvergessen! We've addressed all feedback points in this commit.

Inline comment responses

#	Feedback	Status
1	IDOR fix — $userId parameter on mapper queries	✅ Both findById() and clearCategoryFromAttendees() now require and filter on $userId
2	Snowflake ID for primary key	✅ Following the scheduled messages pattern
3	Index rename to tcs_user_id	✅
4	Remove docs/conversation-sections.md	✅ Documentation via OpenAPI specs
5	Capabilities to v24	✅ Moved to v24 section
6	Revert appinfo/info.xml	✅
7	Skip CHANGELOG.md	✅ Reverted
8	TEXT column with JSON array	✅ category_ids is TEXT with JSON. Single category enforced in application layer (like MS Teams), schema supports multiple if needed later
9	Sort capability not in Capabilities.php	✅ Implemented as server-side user preferences following chat => style pattern: sort-order and group-mode in Config.php, Capabilities.php, BeforePreferenceSetEventListener.php
10	Sort vs Group as separate settings	✅ Split into sortOrder (radio: activity/alphabetical) + groupMode (checkbox: groups first) — independently combinable

Review body responses

#	Feedback	Status
11	Vuex → Pinia	✅ Migrated to Pinia settings.ts store
12	Merge filter + sort buttons	✅ Single dropdown with FilterCogOutline icon and NcActionSeparator. Includes "New category" at the bottom
13	3-dot menu instead of "Manage sections"	✅ Removed dialog entirely. Inline management via 3-dot menu per header: rename, move up/down, delete. Delete uses ConfirmDialog
14	Headers not using our components	✅ Now uses NcAppNavigationItem with allowCollapse for native Nextcloud chevron
15	Item height / accessibility	✅ Dialog removed. Move up/down in 3-dot menu, disabled on first/last category
16	Explicit button for new category	✅ "New category" button in filter/sort dropdown, shows input field on click
17	Move up/down for a11y	✅ In 3-dot menu, disabled at boundaries
18	Wording → category	✅ Renamed throughout: classes, API (/categories), capability (conversation-categories), UI strings

Screenshots

Creating a new category via the filter/sort dropdown:

Assigning a conversation to a category and the result:

Edit category