Default sort order on the other table columns

Question

I render a table with theme_table() and use tablesorting (sql) for that. It all works fine.

Except for the intial/default sort on the other tables. No user sort option defined yet. Example:

Name | Age ▼

Sort by "age" is defined in the $header. User clicks on "Name". That now gets sorted ascending. Regardless! I need descending.

Click:

Name ▲ | Age

But I need/want:

Click:

Name ▼ | Age

Studying the code that determines the default sort order, in tablesort_header, I come across the following:

else {
  // If the user clicks a different header, we want to sort ascending initially.
  $ts['sort'] = 'asc';
  $image = '';
}

I see no way to avoid this. Do you? Did I miss some parameter, option? I refuse to believe that Drupal makes such a silly assumption without letting developers override it.

Answer 1

No, it isn't possible at this point.

There is an issue for that, I suggest you try that out and report back so that it can be commited soon: http://drupal.org/node/109493

Answer 2

You can override it, but probably not the way you would like. tablesort_header is called from within theme_table. I guess the reason why it have been hardcoded like this, is that is's a utility function for a theme function.

You can override theme_table and change the behavior, though I must admit it would have been nicer to have it been determined by a variable.

Answer 3

There is a work around, if you are able to define the link that takes you to the page with the table you want sorted.

Simply craft the link to be the same as if you had clicked on the column to make it descending. The link will have the table column name and sorting defined as fragments: www.domain.com/table_page?order=title&sort=desc

At least this is not a core hack, and it will persist over pagination links.

Answer 4

Here's how I did it with a custom module using #attached and a .js behavior:

example.js

(function ($) {
  Drupal.behaviors.myFoo = {
    attach: function (context, settings) {

      var th = document.querySelectorAll('#my-container table.sticky-table thead th');
      if (th) {
        for (var i = 0; i < th.length; i++) {
          var el = th[i];
          if (el.classList.contains('active')) { continue; } // Skip the active column.
          var a = el.querySelector('a');
          a.setAttribute('href', a.getAttribute('href').replace('sort=asc', 'sort=desc'));
        }
      }

    }
  };
}(jQuery));

It simply iterates over each column in the table (skipping the active column), the replaces the sort=asc with sort=desc on each link.

Quick and dirty, that's what she said.