Ability to order results about eloquentfilter

[Tucker-Eric]

I have run into a similar issue and initially was just passing sort_col and sort_dir to the query and then in the model filter using a sortCol() method like:

public function sortCol($col)
{
    $this->orderBy($col, $this->input('sort_dir', 'DESC'));
}

Then these methods started getting bloated when ordering by a relation that wasn't joined and having to add each relation's join query.

That eventually turned into:

public function sortCol($col)
{
    if(method_exists($this, $method = 'orderBy'.studly_case($col))) {
        return $this->$method();
    }

    $this->orderBy($col, $this->input('sort_dir', 'DESC'));
}

public function orderByClientNumber()
{
    $this->join('clients', 'clients.user_id', '=', 'users.id')
        ->orderBy('clients.work_phone', $this->input('sort_dir', 'DESC'));
}

I'm not sure I like that solution though...

I'm totally open to suggestions on this one as it's been coming up a bit more frequently for me.

[Tucker-Eric]

I would define an orderable method on the filter to be able to tune it per model/filter/query and fallback to a default sort. Something like:

protected $sortable = ['created_at', 'updated_at', 'id'];

public function sortable($column)
{
    return in_array($column, array_merge($this->getModel()->getFillable(), $this->sortable));
}

Then you can do:

 /**
 * Sort the Items by a specific column
 * Optionally sort in a specific direction
 * @param $column
 * @return mixed
 */
public function sortBy($column)
{

    // Check if pre-defined orderBy method exists to sort by
    if (method_exists($this, $method = 'orderBy' . studly_case($column))) {
        return $this->$method();
    }

    // Otherwise order by the column in a specific direction, default DESC
    return $this->sortable($column) ? $this->orderBy($column, $$this->input('sort_direction', 'DESC')) : $this->orderBy('created_at', 'DESC')
}

That way you're not adding another query to check for the existence of a column and you are reverting back to your default when the column isn't recognized.

[philliphartin]

@Tucker-Eric I like the method you've provided, I actually added an additional if statement around the pure orderBy() method to ensure that the column being requested exists.

 /**
     * Sort the Items by a specific column
     * Optionally sort in a specific direction
     * @param $column
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function sortBy($column)
    {

        // Check if pre-defined orderBy method exists to sort by
        if (method_exists($this, $method = 'orderBy' . studly_case($column))) {
            return $this->$method();
        }

        // Otherwise order by the column in a specific direction, default DESC
        if(Schema::hasColumn('items', $column)){
            return $this->orderBy($column, $this->input('sort_direction', 'DESC'));
        }

    }

Only issue is that the table name needs to be included. Perhaps there is a cleaner way?