How to sort table columns in rails?

Question

I implemented this following the Ryan Bates tutorial to sort table columns and it works great, however when I render the index page the table is already sorted by title (asc), and I would like to sort the columns only when the user click on the column header.

How could I achieve this?

Code

controller

class ProductsController < ApplicationController
  helper_method :sort_column, :sort_direction

  def index
    @products = Product.order(sort_column + " " + sort_direction)
  end

  # ...

  private

  def sort_column
    Product.column_names.include?(params[:sort]) ? params[:sort] : "name"
  end

  def sort_direction
    %w[asc desc].include?(params[:direction]) ? params[:direction] : "asc"
  end
end

helper_method

def sortable(column, title = nil)
  title ||= column.titleize
  css_class = column == sort_column ? "current #{sort_direction}" : nil
  direction = column == sort_column && sort_direction == "asc" ? "desc" : "asc"
  link_to title, {:sort => column, :direction => direction}, {:class => css_class}
end

index.html.erb

<tr>
  <th><%= sortable "name" %></th>
  <th><%= sortable "price" %></th>
  <th><%= sortable "released_at", "Released" %></th>
</tr>

CSS

.pretty th .current {
  padding-right: 12px;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: right center;
}

.pretty th .asc {
  background-image: url(/images/up_arrow.gif);
}

.pretty th .desc {
  background-image: url(/images/down_arrow.gif);
}

The sorting you describe would best be implemented in Javascript, as it is fundamentally a client-side problem (whereas rails is there to help solve the server-side problems). The table sorter plugin for jquery is exactly what you're looking for: tablesorter.com/docs. — Reck
– Reck, Commented Feb 3, 2013 at 1:39
Hi @Reck, thank you for the recommendation. I want to explore the possibility of doing this with rails, as a learning process. — evanx
– evanx, Commented Feb 3, 2013 at 1:47
What would be the default sort on the list of products that you want ?? — Rahul garg
– Rahul garg, Commented Feb 3, 2013 at 6:34

kobaltz · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-03 06:26:04Z

6

You should check out Ransack. It does a great job for sorting and complex searches. There is a great RailsCasts video that should help you and is much less invasive.

answered Feb 3, 2013 at 6:26

kobaltz

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3 Comments

Martin Velez Over a year ago

As of the moment, ransack does not work with edge RoR. github.com/activerecord-hackery/polyamorous/issues/6

kobaltz Over a year ago

Try adding this to your gem file if you're having issues with polyamorous. gem 'polyamorous', github: 'activerecord-hackery/polyamorous'

Martin Velez Over a year ago

gem "ransack", github: "activerecord-hackery/ransack", branch: "rails-4.1" gem 'polyamorous', github: 'activerecord-hackery/polyamorous'

Extrapolator · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-23 12:56:01Z

3

Just in case someone will find this question. There is a a great gem for sortable columns (and not only that): https://github.com/leikind/wice_grid

Just look at the examples: http://wicegrid.herokuapp.com/

answered Jul 23, 2014 at 12:56

Extrapolator

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2 Comments

Juanda Over a year ago

The gem is not actively maintained anymore. The author mentions that he won't work on it and it's looking for maintainers.

iconoclast Over a year ago

There's a Rails 5 fork of it. So if you're worried about using it not being maintained, the lack of maintenance by the original author is no longer a major concern.

Antony Orenge · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-06 09:45:55Z

1

You can try placing an if check on the index method

def index
  if sort_column and sort_direction
    @products = Product.order(sort_column + " " + sort_direction)
  else
    @products = Product.all()
  end
end

def sort_column
  Product.column_names.include?(params[:sort]) ? params[:sort] : nil
end

def sort_direction
  %w[asc desc].include?(params[:direction]) ? params[:direction] : nil
end

answered Oct 6, 2016 at 9:45

Antony Orenge

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