Custom Views Sort Order Using Filter Value

Question

I have a View containing a list of events. There is a date field on the event content type which contains start and end time:

There is a filter for start time, which is setup using the Views Between Dates Filter:

This means that entering 11:00am in the filter will ensure that the event with time 10:00 AM to 3:00PM exists in the results since 11 falls between 10 and 3.

The full result set might look like the following when using 11am for the filter:

7am to 3pm
8am to 12pm
9am to 11:30pm
11am to 12:00pm
11am to 1pm

How can I create a custom sort, such that the exact matches for start time are ordered first? These are the results I need:

11am to 12:00pm
11am to 1pm
7am to 3pm
8am to 12pm
9am to 11:30pm

Is there a way to create a custom sort handler for views using filter values?

EDIT: I'd hoped I could use hook_views_post_execute to re-order the data but I'm using a pager, so only the first 10 results exist in $view->result

Answer 1

In the end, my client agreed this feature was overkill and it was ommitted but I thought of a way it could be achieved.

Potential Solution

The following is only feasible if you have a finite and relatively low number of filter values because you need to create a field for every filter value.

• Create a field of type boolean for every filter value. In our case we had 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 as potential values for hour and 00, 15, 30, 45 for minute. 24 possible combinations, so 24 fields need added to the event type.
• The field should be named according to the filter combination, e.g. Sort: 10:00, Sort: 10:15 etc.
• The field value should be set as either 1 or 0. If the event start time matches the time in the name of sort field then this should be set to 1 otherwise it should be set to 0. hook_node_insert and hook_node_update could be used to set the values.

E.g on each event you would have:

Start Time - 11:00

Sort 10:00 - 0
Sort 10:15 - 0
Sort 10:30 - 0
Sort 10:45 - 0
Sort 11:00 - 1
etc (the rest would be set to 0).

• When the filter is applied, use hook_views_query_alter to grab the filter value. Then set the sort based on that field.

E.g if the user entered 11:00 as the filter value, we could force the sort to use the Sort: 11:00 field. The following is written off the top of my head, so would need some tweaks:

function my_module_views_query_alter(&$view, &$query) {
  if($view->exposed_input['field_start_time'][0]['value'] == "11:00am") {
    $view->query->orderby[0]['field'] = "field_data_field_sort_11_00_value";
    $view->query->orderby[0]['direction'] = "DESC";
    // Add any secondary sorts.
  }
  else if($view->exposed_input['field_start_time'][0]['value'] == "11:15am") {
    $view->query->orderby[0]['field'] = "field_data_field_sort_11_15_value";
    $view->query->orderby[0]['direction'] = "DESC";
    // Add any secondary sorts.
  }
}