Sortable arrow/icon in all sort links

[brunofacca]

Inexperienced users may not realize that columns are sortable just because their header names contain links. I have monkey patched Ransack to include a bidirectional vertical arrow in all sort links to explicitly indicate that those columns are sortable. I'd like to open a pull request. Are you interested in adding this feature to Ransack?

The main change would be in Ransack::Helpers::FormHelper::SortLink

def order_indicator
  return if @hide_indicator
  if no_sort_direction_specified?
    initial_arrow
  elsif @current_dir == 'desc'.freeze
    up_arrow
  else
    down_arrow
  end
end

I have also modified Ransack::Configuration to allow customization of the bidirectional arrow.

[scarroll32]

I think this could be a great optional feature, esp. if it allows passing an icon.

[scarroll32]

Pull requests welcome

[brunofacca]

Thanks. I will submit a PR.

Would you like this feature to be turned on or off by default?

I'm thinking about naming that character/icon "initial_arrow", "sortable_icon" or "sortable_indicator". What do you think?

I can think of two ways to make this feature optional:

• Add a config option such as initial_arrow whose value can be an empty string to turn off the feature or an actual character/icon (e.g., ↕) to turn it on.
• Add an option to the config (e.g., hide_sortable_icon or hide_initial_sort_arrow) to switch the feature on or off.

Which do you think its best?

[scarroll32]

Just thinking about this again ... It is possible to add any markup already.

<%= sort_link(@q, :name) do %>
  <strong>Player Name</strong>
<% end %>

What about a version of the sort_link helper which more easily includes an icon. I think it is better to create a new helper and leave the existing one as-is.

Font Awesome are pretty much the main open source font library, we could use something like

sort_fa_icon_link and then pass the name of the Font Awesome icon.

What do you think?

[brunofacca]

I was thinking about something like the following in Ransack::Helpers::FormHelper

def order_indicator
  return if @hide_indicator
  if no_sort_direction_specified?
    initial_arrow
  elsif @current_dir == 'desc'.freeze
    up_arrow
  else
    down_arrow
  end
end

Plus adding an option to allow customizing the "initial arrow" in the config and, of course, the corresponding tests.

[abali96]

Hey! Was this submitted? I would love to use this feature!

[brunofacca]

Hey @abali96. This was not yet submitted.

@seanfcarroll, I had most of the code ready before we started discussing implementation details. If you still think the feature is useful and you're ok with it being implemented as I described in this comment, I can open a PR. If positive, your feedback about these design decisions would be valuable.

[scarroll32]

@brunofacca sorry for the delay in responding. I'd vote for the config option

Add a config option such as initial_arrow whose value can be an empty string to turn off the feature or an actual character/icon (e.g., ↕) to turn it on.

[brunofacca]

No problem @seanfcarroll. Unfortunately, I no longer have any free time to implement this. I suggest we close this issue and I will reopen it if/when the required time comes up.

[scarroll32]

Closed.