System Configuration not defaulting to General

Question

When I click on System > Configuration it brings up the Catalin SEO configuration by default instead of the General tab.

I've edited the system.xml file for Catalin SEO to set the sort_order to be higher, but it just moves it further down the sidebar instead of stopping it from being loaded by default.

How can I change this?

Answer 1

So this happens when the sort_order is set "incorrectly" for a modules system config sections.

To update this simply find the <sort_order> for the section you are dealing with. It should look something like the following:

<config>
    <sections>
        <your_section>
            <sort_order>10</sort_order>

You can either update this in the file directly, but this will be overridden on update. Or create your own module that depends on this module and simply add a config file with only this value being updated.

<config>
    <sections>
        <your_section>
            <sort_order>300</sort_order> <!-- add the new higher value here -->
        <your_section>
    <sections>
<config>

It is not a major problem so you could always just update the file.

Answer 2

Modifying the sort order should do the trick.
Just make sure you modify the right sort order.

Here is why modifying the sort_order of the section should work.

In Mage_Adminhtml_Block_System_Config_Tabs::initTabs there is this code:

$current = $this->getRequest()->getParam('section'); //this should be empty when accessing configuration through the menu.

Then there is this that retrieves all the sections:

$sections = $configFields->getSections($current);

Then the sections are sorted by sort_order

usort($sections, array($this, '_sort'));

And finally there is a loop through all the sections for some modifications and in this loop is checked if there is a section selected.
If there is no section selected, the first one that you have rights to, is set as the current section

        $sectionAllowed = $this->checkSectionPermissions($code);
        if ((empty($current) && $sectionAllowed)) {

            $current = $code;
            $this->getRequest()->setParam('section', $current);
        }

Make sure you edit the right sort_order. You shouldn't edit the sort order on the tab tag. Edit <sort_order> from inside the <section> tag.

As a side comment. This seams like a defect to me. The first default section should be the first section from the tab with the lowest sort order.