Plugin loading order is not deterministic

[khalwat]

Currently services/Plugins loads plugins with this query:

            $pluginInfo = $this->_createPluginQuery()
                ->indexBy('handle')
                ->all();

ref: https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/develop/src/services/Plugins.php#L198

Unfortunately, this means that plugin loading order is not deterministic; it depends on in what order plugins are installed. This makes it difficult to track down issues such at this one in SEOmatic, because plugins will load in a different order on Site A than Site B:

nystudio107/craft-seomatic#654 (comment)

...where the issue only happens if SEOmatic is installed before Craft Commerce is installed. So obviously an issue on my end that will be fixed, but I think it would make diagnosing issues such as this easier if plugins were always loaded in a deterministic order, just like MacOS kernel extensions and other such things are.

So I propose changing the query to:

            $pluginInfo = $this->_createPluginQuery()
                ->indexBy('handle')
                ->orderBy(['handle' => SORT_ASC])
                ->all();

...so that plugins will always be loaded in a deterministic order, alphabetically by their plugin handle.

While it may seem like it's a breaking change in terms of affecting the loading order of plugins, you're actually making that same breaking change yourself every time you install or uninstall a plugin.

Deterministic loading order across sites is always better than random on a per-site basis, based on a hidden variable (install order)

Related: #3028

[brandonkelly]

Fixed for the next release!

Now we wait for someone to release “AAA SEO”…

[khalwat]

Yeah, I know, I know re: "AAA SEO" but at least it'll be the same on every install. I'm with @AugustMiller that plugins should be agnostic about loading order, but this will make it easier to debug when something goes wrong.

Thx @brandonkelly !

[brandonkelly]

3.7.31 is out now with that change.