sorted¶ ↑

Sorted is a simple object that will take an sql order string and a url sort string to let you sort large datasets over many pages (using will_paginate) without loosing state.

Using Rails master it will create a sorted scope and a two view helpers

Example¶ ↑

Gemfile¶ ↑

gem sorted

View¶ ↑

link_to_sorted "Email", :email

This will make a url like this:

http://myapp/users?sort=email_asc

or on the next page load when you then sort by something else.…

http://myapp/users?sort=name_asc!email_asc

Model¶ ↑

This will initially sort by email ascending:

@users = User.sorted(:order => "email ASC", :sort => params[:sort]).paginate(:page => params[:page])

Or you can just clone the example app github.com/mynameisrufus/sorted_app.

If you want to sort by a belongs_to relationship, just provide sort order as “RELATIONS.COLUMN ASC|DESC” where RELATIONS is the name of the relationship table and COLUMN is an attribute in that table. For example, assuming the User model belongs_to a :company.

@users = User.sorted(:order => "companies.name asc", :sort => params[:sort]).paginate(:page => params[:page])

Presentation¶ ↑

You might want to roll your own link_to_sorted method to use jQuery ui css classes for example, all you need is the sorted object.

def link_to_sorted(name, order)
  sorter    = sorted(order)
  css_class = case sorter.to_css
              when "sorted asc"
                "ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-n"
              when "sorted desc"
                "ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s"
              when "sorted"
                "ui-icon ui-icon-carat-2-n-s"
              end
  link_to(content_tag(:span, nil, {:class => css_class}) + name.to_s, sorter.params)
end

Tables are best displayed with alternating shades for each row, so put this in your helper:

def odd_even
  @odd_even ||= 0
  @odd_even += 1
  (@odd_even % 2) == 1 ? 'odd' : 'even'
end

Then in your table do something like this:

<tr class="<%= odd_even %>">

Rails 2.3.x¶ ↑

This gem works with rails 2.3.x but you will have to roll your own scope and view helper.

Here is the named scope for your model(s):

named_scope :sorted, lambda { |params|
  { :order =>  Sorted::Sorter.new(params[:order], {:sort => params[:sort]}).to_sql }
}

and the the application helper methods:

def sorted(order)
  Sorted::Sorter.new(order, (request.get? && !params.nil?) ? params.dup : nil).toggle
end

def link_to_sorted(name, order)
  sorter = sorted(order)
  link_to(name, sorter.params, {:class => sorter.to_css})
end