README

A simple trait to make your Laravel Eloquent models sortable with ease. Designed for API usage where you can pass sort parameters directly from query strings (e.g., /users?sort=-id).

Installation

Using Composer:

composer require firevel/sortable

Setup

1. Import the Sortable trait in your Eloquent model.

2. Add a protected $sortable array property to your model. This array should list the fields you want to allow for sorting.

Example:

use Firevel\Sortable\Sortable; class User extends Model { use Sortable; /**  * Fields allowed for sorting.  *  * @var array  */ protected $sortable = ['id', 'name', 'email']; /**  * Default sorting when no sort parameter is provided (optional).  *  * @var array|null  */ protected $defaultSort = ['-id']; }

Usage

You can now easily sort your models using the sort() query scope.

Ascending Order:

To sort by name in ascending order:

User::sort(['name'])->get();

Descending Order:

To sort by id in descending order:

User::sort(['-id'])->get();

The - sign before the field name indicates descending order.

Multiple Columns:

You can sort by multiple columns at once. The sorting is applied in the order specified:

User::sort(['name', '-id'])->get();

This will sort by name ascending, then by id descending.

API Usage:

This trait is particularly useful for API endpoints where you receive sort parameters from query strings:

// Example: GET /users?sort=-id public function index(Request $request) { $sort = $request->input('sort'); $sortArray = $sort ? explode(',', $sort) : []; return User::sort($sortArray)->get(); } // Supports multiple sort parameters: // GET /users?sort=name,-id

Additional Features

Default Sorting

You can define a default sort order that will be applied when no sort parameters are provided:

class User extends Model { use Sortable; protected $sortable = ['id', 'name', 'email', 'created_at']; protected $defaultSort = ['-created_at']; // Sort by newest first by default } // When called with no parameters, uses default sort User::sort([])->get(); // Returns users sorted by created_at DESC

Check if Field is Sortable

You can check if a specific field is sortable using the isSortable() method:

$user = new User(); if ($user->isSortable('name')) { // Field is sortable } if ($user->isSortable('-id')) { // Also works with descending prefix }

Validation Rule for Form Requests

The package provides two ways to validate sort parameters:

String-based validation:

class ListUsersRequest extends FormRequest { public function rules() { return [ 'sort' => ['nullable', 'string', 'sort_fields:App\Models\User'], ]; } }

Object-based validation (provides more detailed error messages):

use Firevel\Sortable\SortField; use App\Models\User; class ListUsersRequest extends FormRequest { public function rules() { return [ 'sort' => ['nullable', 'string', new SortField(User::class)], ]; } }

Both approaches work with string and array inputs:

// String input (e.g., from query string ?sort=name,-id) 'sort' => ['nullable', 'string', 'sort_fields:App\Models\User'] // Array input 'sort' => ['nullable', 'array', 'sort_fields:App\Models\User']

Example usage in a controller:

public function index(ListUsersRequest $request) { $sort = $request->input('sort'); $sortArray = is_array($sort) ? $sort : explode(',', $sort); return User::sort($sortArray)->get(); }

The validation rule will automatically:

• Check if each field is in the model's $sortable array
• Handle both ascending (name) and descending (-name) formats
• Provide clear error messages for invalid fields