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Sortable Table

Sort HTML tables in your Rails app.

Install

script/plugin install git://github.com/thoughtbot/sortable_table.git

In app/controllers/application_controller.rb:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include SortableTable::App::Controllers::ApplicationController
end

In app/helpers/application_helper.rb:

module ApplicationHelper
  include SortableTable::App::Helpers::ApplicationHelper
end

Testing

context "enough Users to sort" do
  setup do
    5.times { Factory :user }
  end

  should_sort_by_attributes :name, :email, :age, :group => "groups.name"

  context "GET to #index" do
    setup { get :index }

    should_display_sortable_table_header_for :name, :email, :age, :group
  end
end

This is the common case for a RESTful UsersController.

• should_sort_by_attributes tests that the controller's index action can sort by the attributes.
• should_display_sortable_header_for tests that a sortable header displays for the attributes.

Controller

class UsersController < Admin::BaseController
  sortable_attributes :name, :email, :age, :group => "groups.name"

  def index
    @users = User.paginate :page => params[:page], :order => sort_order
  end
end

sortable_attributes defines a sort_order method that gets called in your action.

If the index action is rendered without a params[:sort] option, @users will be sorted by :name, the first option in the list of sortable_attributes.

View

<h1>Users</h1>
<table>
  <tr>
    <%= sortable_table_header :name => "Name",  :sort => "name" %>
    <%= sortable_table_header :name => "Email", :sort => "email" %>
    <%= sortable_table_header :name => "Age",   :sort => "age" %>
    <%= sortable_table_header :name => "Group", :sort => "group" %>
  </tr>
  <% @users.each do |user| %>
    <tr>
      <td><%= html_escape(user.name) %></td>
      <td><%= html_escape(user.email) %></td>
      <td><%= html_escape(user.age) %></td>
      <td><%= html_escape(user.group.name) %></td>
    </tr>
  <% end %>
</table>

sortable_table_header creates a table header containing a link with the correct :sort and :order params. It also has a class of "ascending" or "descending" so you can add styles with arrows. You can add your own styles as well.

Example styles

th.ascending a {
  background: url(/images/sort-ascending-arrow.gif) 0% 50% no-repeat;
  padding-left: 15px;
}

th.descending a {
  background: url(/images/sort-descending-arrow.gif) 0% 50% no-repeat;
  padding-left: 15px;
}

Overriding should_sort_by_attributes

Opinionated defaults:

• GET to :index
• collection same name as controller (@users for UsersController)
• model name same name as controller (User for UsersController

If you need to test another action (or a nested controller), pass a block:

should_sort_by_attributes :age do |sort, order|
  get :show, :sort => sort, :order => order, :group_id => @group.id
end

If you need to test another collection or model name, use should_sort_by.

Overriding should_sort_by

The :collection, :model_name, and :action options of should_sort_by.

context "with a non-standard collection name" do
  action = lambda { |sort, order| get :members, :sort => sort, :order => order }
  should_sort_by :name, { :collection => "members",
                          :model_name => "user",
                          :action     => action } do |user|
    user.name
  end
end

sort_order

The default sort order is descending. This applies to the first time you click on a table header. You can override this to be ascending:

def index
  @users = User.find :all, :order => sort_order(:default => "ascending")
end

Credits

Thank you to all the contributors.

License

Sortable Table is Copyright © 2008-2011 thoughtbot. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the MIT-LICENSE file.