# Change the order of properties in python plugin

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** python
**Created:** [September 19, 2022, 7:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351 "2022-09-19T07:17:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![vavo01](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vavo01](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/vavo01)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2022, 7:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351/1 "2022-09-19T07:17:02Z")

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Dear all,

I’ve finally managed to create my own python plugin. @utkarsh.ayachit Thanks for the great example here:

> <https://github.com/Kitware/ParaView/blob/master/Examples/Plugins/PythonAlgorithm/PythonAlgorithmExamples.py>

But one point is still open for me: how can I change the order of the properties in the GUI? The order of the functions decorated by @smproperty in the python code does not have any influence.

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### Author: ![utkarsh.ayachit](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/utkarsh.ayachit/32/39_2.png) [@utkarsh.ayachit](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/utkarsh.ayachit)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2022, 1:56pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351/2 "2022-09-19T13:56:25Z")

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Alas that’s not currently possible. It’ll need some coding to fix that. The issue is that Python doesn’t order member functions any particular way. In fact, it changes in different runs. To avoid the properties moving around between invocations, I sorted them, IIRC.

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351/3 "2022-09-19T15:51:33Z")

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Indeed, they are sorted by the command name. See [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/21493](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/21493).

@mwestphal we should consider adding a hint or attribute to determine ordering of property widgets in the property panel. This could then be exposed as a decorator in Python-based plugins.

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### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2022, 1:36am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351/4 "2022-09-20T01:36:00Z")

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Definitely !

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2025, 10:26am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/change-the-order-of-properties-in-python-plugin/10351/5 "2025-07-07T10:26:05Z")

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Closing the loop, this feature was added in ParaView 5.13.