[Bug] Realm Status API: Response order

#1 - May 30, 2011, 4:28 p.m.
Blizzard Post
The order in which realms are returned can be inconsistent. The response when no realms are specified is in alphabetical order by realm name as expected in both US and EU. However, when specifying realms the order of the response is not always alphabetical.

In the following examples, specified order does not matter. The result is the same when specifying realms in any order.

This produces {The Scryers, Medivh} where alphabetically {Medivh, The Scryers} is expected:

http://us.battle.net/api/wow/realm/status?realm=Medivh&realm=The%20Scryers

This strangely produces {The Scryers, Hyjal, Medivh} where alphabetically {Hyjal, Medivh, The Scryers} is expected:

http://us.battle.net/api/wow/realm/status?realm=Hyjal&realm=The%20Scryers&realm=Medivh

Similar issues are present for EU Realms. The following produces {The Maelstrom, Los Errantes, Die Todeskrallen} where alphabetically {Die Todeskrallen, Los Errantes, The Maelstrom} is expected:

http://eu.battle.net/api/wow/realm/status?realm=Los%20Errantes&realm=Die%20Todeskrallen&realm=The%20Maelstrom

It seems that specifying realms with spaces in their names creates the unexpected results. For comparison, this produces {Hyjal, Lightbringer, Medivh} as expected:

http://us.battle.net/api/wow/realm/status?realm=Medivh&realm=Lightbringer&realm=Hyjal

While it could be argued that when individual realms are specified the returned order should match the specified order, consistently alphabetical would be a good first step.
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Web & Mobile Team
#2 - May 31, 2011, 3:51 p.m.
Blizzard Post
This is good feedback. We'll look into normalizing the sort order of realms to be based on the alphabetical proper name of the realm.