To format Special:AbuseFilter we're currently extending TablePager class, which looks pretty and is quite handy for formatting results from a DB query. However, this approach brings some limits in sorting columns (which TablePager does using `ORDER BY` ). These are the currently identified ones:
# With T87862 we'll add to the table some data retrieved from cache instead of DB. They're correctly shown but can't be sorted at all.
# In T120563 we learned that in some particular cases, sorting by hit count may reveal too much info. This may also be addressed by overriding TablePager's method which builds the query adding some SQL tricks.
# In T52839 it's been proposed to make the table sortable without reloading the page. This would need a client-side sorting.
Although problem (2) may be worked-around and (3) is not a big deal, (1) is instead something uncomfortable to live with. In case we need a brand new system to solve it, then we'd better take into account the other issues as well.