Sort Docker tags by Elixir/Erlang/OS version (latest first)

[rhcarvalho]

The new https://bob.hex.pm/docker is great, thanks!!

Part of the UX pain that the new Web UI solves is finding new versions as they are published (#185).

I tried using the filters but it seems the results are sorted by build date. For example, this is the current page without filters:

It would be more useful to see the image for the latest Elixir version (1.20.1, not RCs), Erlang 29 and latest Debian image tag. Elixir 1.20.1 is not visible in the first page, so someone needs to know its been released and use the filter to find it (then the same applies to Erlang version and OS version).

[ericmj]

That would only be useful for people looking for Elixir images, but we also provide Erlang images.

We have 3 million tags, I don't think we can expect this page to be very useful unless you filter for specific versions.

[rhcarvalho]

Maybe I didn't express myself well, sorry. My suggestion applies to any image, I would like to see images for recent versions first.

If I'm searching for Elixir images:

Erlang:

Elixir + Debian:

I understand that as soon as there's a new Debian tag, in this case trixie-20260610, there are a multitude of images that get built.

By sorting the results by build date those first hits feel almost random.

If we sorted by versions, the first page of those filtered views would show:

• Elixir: Elixir 1.20.1 + Erlang 29.0.2 + Debian trixie-20260610-slim
• Erlang: Erlang 29.0.2
• Elixir + Debian: Elixir 1.20.1 + Erlang 29.0.2 + Debian trixie-20260610-slim

I would like the new UI to be the go-to place for Phoenix app devs to look for new versions (solving #185), and would like a link to https://bob.hex.pm/docker to be featured in the phx.gen.release output for new apps (phoenixframework/phoenix#6721).

Without an easy way to find the latest versions, I'd still need to go to Elixir's website, Erlang's website and, worst, Docker Hub for the latest Debian tag (which is what has been most annoying in the last years).

[ericmj]

I wasn't really expecting a developer to use this page to look for the latest versions of the components of an image. I would rather expect to go to Elixir's and Erlang's release notes or GitHub repos to find the latest version they may want to update to and then use this page to verify the docker tag exists for that combination.

What are we sorting by if you haven't selected a repo?

If you are looking for an Elixir image are you more interested in the latest Elixir version or the latest OTP version?

[rhcarvalho]

My experience using the page the past week has been very positive. Thanks again for making it available!

What are we sorting by if you haven't selected a repo?

I think I need more time to reflect on this, perhaps try to get my hands dirty running it locally to experiment with different options.

If you are looking for an Elixir image are you more interested in the latest Elixir version or the latest OTP version?

For my production apps, I've been trying to keep them on latest Elixir / latest OTP / latest OS released tag, but there's of course some nuance. E.g. I may upgrade Elixir first while staying on an older OTP for some time. OS is usually the latest to pick up upstream package updates.

So the current ability to filter/prefix match on Elixir version and OTP version is great.

If I filter Elixir 1.20, it would be useful to see 1.20.1 first.
Similarly, if I filter OTP 29, I want to see 29.0.2 first.

Another use case is bumping only the OS version, in which case I could filter by very specific Elixir/OTP versions, say 1.20.1/29.0.2, and then I want to see the latest OS tag for a given OS, e.g. debian-trixie-20260610-slim.

[ericmj]

Given that there are different use cases to filter on a different things maybe we should let the user select? We could also break up the docker tag into individual version components in the table.

[rhcarvalho]

We could also break up the docker tag into individual version components in the table.

Sounds like a good idea!

(Thinking out loud...)

The version component could also be a link that updates the filter. For example, clicking the erlang-29 component would be equivalent to typing 29 in the Erlang version filter; then, clicking debian-trixie updates the OS selection to debian and the version filter to trixie, and the resulting table would show first the latest Erlang 29 / Debian Trixie combination, at the moment 29.0.2-debian-trixie-20260623 and 29.0.2-debian-trixie-20260623-slim. I'm not sure what would come next in the sort order, perhaps older Erlang images or Elixir images matching the filter.

I guess the Elixir vs Erlang image could be an upfront decision. At least in my use cases there's no ambiguity, I'm either looking for one or the other (tbh, typically I'm looking for the Elixir images).