HTML::Template

On 6 Feb 2003, simran wrote:

> (and to me displaying the data sorted in different ways is a design
> issue for the most part, hence the development of the patch).

I don't see it that way.  Sorting in my applications is almost always
controlled by the end user.  Users don't appreciate seeing a list of data
sorted by a particular column and not being able to resort or reverse the
ordering.  Blame it on Microsoft Excel, but when users see tabular data
they usually expect to be able to sort it by clicking on the column
titles.

Hard-coding sorting into a template seems like a poor practice to
encourage.

-sam

Sam Wrote something to the effect of:
=====================================

Sorting belongs in the scripts/program... 

-------------------------------------------------
(sorry, accidently deleted the original message)


==============================================

Sam, how about the sort_data subroutine as part of the core. Sorting
data (in scripts is not that uncommon) so perhaps the sort_data
subroutine would be good as part of the core? 

simran.


On Thu, 2003-02-06 at 16:24, simran wrote:
> Hi Sam, at all, 
> 
> I have developed a patch to enable sorting within loops specifying the
> sort criteria within the template - don't know how useful others will
> find it, but i can think of it being useful to the designers around here
> anyway (and to me displaying the data sorted in different ways is a
> design issue for the most part, hence the development of the patch).
> 
> >From the Documentation - Part of the patch:
> =========================================================================
> You can also sort the data within loops based on certian criteria. 
> Aka, you can do the following:
> 
>    <TMPL_LOOP NAME=PRODUCTS SORTBY="name;order=desc;type=alpha">
>       Name       : <TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME> 
>       Description: <TMPL_VAR NAME=DESCRIPTION> 
>       ID         : <TMPL_VAR NAME=ID> 
>    </TMPL_LOOP>
> 
>    The above will sort the loop on the "name" field, in ascending order
>    based on alphanumeric sort. Please see the documentation for
>    the sort_data() subroutine to see what is available as arguments
>    to "order" and "type".
> 
>    Note: You can leave the order and type options out and detauls
>          of "desc" and "alpha" will be used for them. 
> 
>    Bugs: If you use the same loop multiple times in your template, 
>          the sort criteria for the very first loop will apply.
>          (aka, any sort criteria given with the second/subsequent
>           usage of the loop in the same template will be ignored).
> =========================================================================
> 
> Do others think its a useful feature/patch? If so, Sam, can i please
> request for it to be patched into the core. 
> 
> thanks,
> 
> simran.

simran wrote:

> Sam, how about the sort_data subroutine as part of the core. Sorting
> data (in scripts is not that uncommon) so perhaps the sort_data
> subroutine would be good as part of the core?

I'd've thought that the very fact that sorting data in scripts is not
that uncommon is a good reason to leave it there!  It isn't as though
it's a particularly hard thing to achieve in Perl.

I don't think there are many situations where the order in which items
are displayed is only a property of the skin of a site and not its
function, are there?

Smylers
-- 
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