SortThis

SortThis provides a way to sort.

The controller/view code is based off of railscasts episode 228 - Sortable Table Columns.

Here is an example app that demonstrates the usage.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'sort_this'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Usage

Model

Add a call to the sortable method with a hash of sorts

class YourModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  
  sort_this :sort_name => {:column_name => :name, :default => 'ASC', :table_name => 'some_other_table_name', :joins => :association, :clause => "some.clause"}
  
end

The options are

sort_name: Is the name of the sort, this in most cases will be the same as the column_name, but can be anything

Sort Options:

  column_name: (Optional) The name of the column to sort on. If left blank it will use the sort name.
  default:     (Optional) Defines a default sort if provided. The valid options are 'ASC' or 'DESC'.
  table_name:  (Optional) Overrides the table name used, should usually be used in coordination with joins.
  joins:       (Optional) Defines an association to join on, this should be provided if the column is in another table. ** Requires table name to be set. **
                          This is what you would usually pass into a joins or includes clause for ActiveRecord.
  clause:      (Optional) Overrides the clause used for the sort.

Then to sort

YourModel.sort("sort_name", "asc|desc|ASC|DESC") => sorted list of YourModel objects

Controller

In you controller define a default sort

class SomeController < ApplicationController
  sortable "sort_name"
  
  def index
    SomeModel.sort(sort_column, sort_direction)
  end
end

In Views

sortable(sort_name, title = nil, html_options = {})

<%= sortable("sort_name") %>

or custom title

<%= sortable("sort_name", "Sort Different Name") %>

TODO:

Defined Highest to Lowest priority

Options on the sortable controller options
- Limiting which actions it can be applied on
- Allowing different types of sorts for different actions (defining multiple sortables)
- Customized sort parameters
Test helpers to verify that sorts have been declared properly

Being able to define multiple column sorts

Something like:
sort_this :some_crazy_sort => {
  [
    {:column_name => :some_column, other options},
    ...
  ] 
}

not sure how that'd be called though...

Throw error when the table_name option is not set and joins is set.
Define a default scope and remove from the sort method, gives more control to developer.
Define scopes for each sort defined (individual sort scopes)

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request

sort_this

Runtime