raymond¶ ↑

Gives your view tables nice sorting ability with ease.

Prepare your model: specify, which columns may get sorted.

class VeryImportantData < ActiveRecord::Base

  include Raymond::Model

  # sort by these db table columns
  allow_sort_by :name, :created_at

  # sort by this method, that is _not_ a db table column
  allow_sort_by :my_custom_method, :db => false

  # do a very customized sort
  allow_sort_by :my_sort_key, :method => Proc.new{|obj| obj.my_method(:my_param)}

  ...

Not very much to do in the Controller:

class VeryImportantDataController < ApplicationController

  def index
    # create the sorting object and pass the sorting parameters
    @sorting = Raymond::Control.new(self, params[:sort])

    # fetch the ordered result from the db; do method based sorting if necessary.
    @very_important_data = @sorting.result

    respond_to do |format|
      format.html # index.html.erb
    end
  end

  ...

Use a helper method in your view to show the table headers:

<tr>
  <th><%= sort_header :name, 'Name' %></th>
  <th><%= sort_header :my_custom_method, 'Column #2' %></th>
  <th><%= sort_header :my_sort_key, 'Column #3' %></th>
  <th><%= sort_header :created_at, 'Since' %></th>
</tr>

And the helper method (not included in Gem):

def sort_header(key, label)
  current = @sorting.current_attr?(key)
  symbol = current ? (@sorting.dir == :up ? '▲' : '▼') : ''
  link_to "#{symbol}#{label}", "?sort=#{key}-#{current ? @sorting.inverse_dir : Raymond::DEFAULT_SORTING_DIR.to_s}"
end

@sorting = Raymond::Control.new(self, params[:sort])

In the example above, the class to query it determined by the name of the controller applying Ruby on Rails conventions (PeopleController will use the class Person). Passing the option :class will allow you to use any other class:

@sorting = Raymond::Control.new(self, params[:sort], :class => PlzUseThisClass)

Often, you may want more control of the underlying SQL statement. Thanks to Arel, anything is possible:

@comments = @sorting.result do |active_relation|
  active_relation.where(:deleted => false).limit(20)
end

There’s more to come, this is only version 0.0.1.

Copyright © 2010 Christoph Petschnig. See LICENSE for details.