Search Result (_sort) - Ability to Search by additional clinical date columns (MedicationRequest.authoredon, MedicationDispense.whenprepared)

[LKShankarKarthik]

Describe the bug
We have hosted this OSS in Azure App Service with appropriate configuration change to support _sort on below resources (clinical date columns). But its not behaving as expected (seems to work intermittently)

FHIR Version
R4

Data provider
CosmosDB

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run the below Query
   MedicationDispense?patient=XXXXXX&whenprepared=ge2023-08-17T12%3A00&whenprepared=le2024-07-17T23%3A59&_count=100**&_sort=-whenprepared**
2. Above request returns bundle with HTTP 200 but with below warning (which is not expected).

Expected behavior
FHIR Response shouldnt have the above warning and it should return results.

Actual behavior
Returns HTTP 200 Bundle Response, but with OperationOutcome (Warning)

[EXPEkesheth]

@LKShankarKarthik - The sort capability with Cosmos DB is supported on when the above config is updated prior to creating he database. After the data base is created, updating the config would not enable the sort capability on search parameters added.

[LKShankarKarthik]

@EXPEkesheth - Thanks for the update. Is there a way to check when it was added? As I remember, we updated the config before we loaded the data (or as part of initial deployment).

[brendankowitz]

Hi @LKShankarKarthik, yes, this config only applies when it initializes the collection. We only invested minimally in sort support for Cosmos since we had much richer support for free in SQL.

As such, there isn't a UI or API for this, I'd advise its not something we're looking to expand or support beyond what's currently there.
Internally, you can update the status in the DB to "Supported", restart the service, then follow the $reindex guidance which should populate the sortable index and enable it. This only works on strings and dates.

[EXPEkesheth]

Closing with no response and question is answered