Ruby on Rails
SortHelper (Version #6)

by Dave Burt

Note: This helper is old, SortHelper2 is more recent, and Dave recommends you check that one out. Feedback, comparison, evaluations of the two is requested.

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Click on the heading, and the table is sorted by that column.

The SortHelper will create links for your users to sort tables.

Here’s a quick synopsis:

View

  <tr>
    <th><%= link_to_sort_by 'First Name', 'name' %></th>
    <th><%= link_to_sort_by 'Surname', 'family.name' %></th>
    <th><%= link_to_sort_by 'Email', 'email' %></th>
  </tr>

Controller:

  helper :sort

  def list  # action
    SortHelper.columns = %w[
      name
      family.name
      email
    ]
    SortHelper.default_order = %w[family.name name]
    @people = Person.find(:all).sort do |a, b|
      SortHelper.sort(a, b, @params)
    end
  end

And your @people are sorted!

Wouldn’t this work better if the helper just set an @param[:order_by] and then use:

@people = Person.find :all, :order => @param[:order_by]

Good idea. This way sorting would work with paginators as well.

How would you modify the sort helper to include this parameter functionality?

category:Helper