SDR Website
There are tables in the website that I wanted to be sortable. Look at the "loco roster", for example. It wasn't obvious how to do that with Joomla!; a thorough review of the "extensions" directory didn't really reveal an obvious candidate. There were extensions that would render a table from data in the database - but how do you get that data therein the first place? Eventually I found JR Sortable Tables: a simple plug-in that makes a "normal" table within an article sortable. Click on the column headings, and it sorts by that column.
The instructions for the plug-in don't tell you how to create the table. But you can do it all with "JCE": you don't need to write the HTML code. There are three steps:
- Install the plug-in and enable it.
- Create the basic table
- Change the header properties
- Add the plug-in reference
Installing a plug-in is a standard Joomla administration activity. It needs to be enabled.
Creating the table is simple. Simply use your editor to create a table in the text, and add into it all of the rows of information. This is absolutely standard text editing.
The table needs to have some properties set. Firstly it needs an "id" field. Right click in the table, choose "table properties" then click the "advanced" tab. Enter a unique name under the "Id" field: mine is "Roster_Table".
Each cell in the header row needs its "class" field to be set to "sort_header". Put the cursor in the cell; right click and select "table cell properties"; then open the drop down list box for the "Class" field and select "(Add Value)" at the bottom. Then enter "sort_header". You will need to do this for each cell in the header!
Finally, after the table, you simply need a line of code to make the table sortable. Using the text editor, simply add " " in the row of text under the table.
