easiest way to order by field in joined table

rubyonrails-talk
1

hey there -

given a simple table like this: orders.id orders.client_id orders.supplier_id orders.date_ordered

I create and index view that has in it something like this: <td><%= @orders.id %></td> <td><%= @orders.client_name %></td> <td><%= @orders.supplier_name %></td> <td><%= @orders.date_ordered %></td>

Ultimately, I'm wanting to provide an 'index' page, that can be resorted on a column of the users choice (i.e.id, client_name, suplier_name, date_ordered)

So thats obviously easy for date_ordered, and id i.e. Order.find(:all, :order=>"date_ordered") for example

BUT to sort by the the client name or supplier name, data which are obviously in a joined table - it gets curlier. Coming from an sql background, i'd assume it should be very very simple, but activerecord seems to obscure something simple and make it a guessing game of syntax - ok - probably not a fair comment... can someone set me straight on this and show me how ?

thanks

glenn

2

should just work like:

@orders = Order.find :all, :include => :suppliers, :order => "supplier.name DESC"

the value to pass to :order is just an SQL Fragment. in SQL you would do "ORDER BY supplier.name DESC" in AR you do :order => "supplier.name DESC"

3

Beautiful... thanks - like I said, prob wasnt a fair comment :wink:

4

given a simple table like this: orders.id orders.client_id orders.supplier_id orders.date_ordered

I create and index view that has in it something like this: <td><%= @orders.id %></td> <td><%= @orders.client_name %></td> <td><%= @orders.supplier_name %></td> <td><%= @orders.date_ordered %></td>

Ultimately, I'm wanting to provide an 'index' page, that can be resorted on a column of the users choice (i.e.id, client_name, suplier_name, date_ordered)

So thats obviously easy for date_ordered, and id i.e. Order.find(:all, :order=>"date_ordered") for example

BUT to sort by the the client name or supplier name, data which are obviously in a joined table - it gets curlier. Coming from an sql background, i'd assume it should be very very simple, but activerecord seems to obscure something simple and make it a guessing game of syntax - ok - probably not a fair comment... can someone set me straight on this and show me how ?

Try...

Order.find(:all, {:include=>[:client, :supplier], :order=>'clients.name'})

- donald