Quickstart

1. Get the app with your favorte Python packaging tool, e.g.:

   pip install django-sorter

2. List this application in the INSTALLED_APPS setting. Your settings file might look something like:

   INSTALLED_APPS = (
       # ...
       'sorter',
   )

3. If it’s not already added in your setup, add the request template context processor to the TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS setting (you might need to add it):

   TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
       # ...
       'django.core.context_processors.request',
   )

4. Specify the allowed sorting criteria, for at least the default 'sort' sorting querystring parameter:

   SORTER_ALLOWED_CRITERIA = {
       'sort': ['first_name', 'creation_date', 'title'],
   }

5. Add this line at the top of your template to load the sorting tags:

   {% load sorter_tags %}

6. Decide on a variable that you would like to sort, and use the sort tag on that variable before iterating over it.

   {% sort objects as sorted_objects %}

7. Optionally, you can display different sort links or forms:

   <tr>
      <th>{% sortlink by "first_name" %}By first name{% endsortlink %}</th>
      <th>{% sortlink by "creation_date,-title" %}By creation date and title{% endsortlink %}</th>
       ...
   </tr>

   The template tag takes a comma separated list of sorting statements. It also is a block tag and allows you to set the label of the generated link. The previous snippet will be rendered like this:

   <tr>
       <th><a href="/?sort=first_name" title="Sort by 'first_name' (asc)">By name</a></th>
       <th><a href="/?sort=creation_date,-title" title="Sort by 'creation_date' (asc) and 'title' (desc)">By creation and title</a></th>
       ...
   </tr>

   Similarly the {% sortform %} template tag renders a form instead of a simple link.