Sort Data Columns

Making data sortable requires this configuration.

Sorting Table's dataSource

To activate sorting in a Table column set the property sortColumn property in the silk:Column tag. This property should contain the DataProvider's column used to sort the column.

<silk:Table id="personList" dataSource="personDP" >
	<silk:Column sortColumn="name">{name}</silk:Column>
	<silk:Column sortColumn="address">{address}</silk:Column>
</silk:Table>

Setting the sortColumn will render the column' title as a link. Clicking on the column's title will sort the data ascendingly; clicking a second time will switch the sorting to descending, and so on.

This level of sorting affects only the DatProvider's data locally stored after a select method execution. If the application uses pagination to display the Table's data, the sorting will only affect the current Table's page data.

Sorting Database Query

Extra steps in the DataProvider and the ORM's are required to use sorting in the database.

The DataProvider

In the DataProvider set the dpSort property to true.

<silk:DataProvider id="personDP" servicePath="" dpSort="true" />

Use the DataProvider's setSortColumn( ) method to set the initial sorting column submitted to the DataProvider. Then, using the beforeSelect event, set the sorting column as a parameter used by the ORM's select. The method getSQLSortColumn() returns the sortColumn selected by the user with the SQL sorting keywords "asc" or "desc" added depending on the sorting action. If that is not desirable, then the method getSortColumn() can be used.

/*
 *Initial sorting column
 */
personDP.setSortColumn("name");

personDP.on("beforeSelect", function(){
	personDP.setParameter("sortColumn", personDP.getSQLSortColumn() );
});

The ORM

In the ORM modify the SQL select to receive the sorting column using the $V{} parameter handler.

select
	name,
	address
from person
order by $V{sortColumn}

After this, clicking on a Table's column's label will trigger a DataProvider's select method and reload the data sorted by the provided column.

*Any data processed by the $V{} parameter handler is reviewed and cleared of SQL injection content.

Sort Programatically

If necessary, execute the sorting process programmatically; this will bypass the Table's column interaction. Do this by using the DataProvider's method sort(column).

personDP.sort("name");

Tree Data

Sorting capabilities are not available for tree structures due to their hierarchical nature.