WARNING: Most of this content (with the exception of the Mozilla 1.9 XPCOM reference) is very old, and can be expected to be out of date and possibly obsolete. For better XUL documentation, please visit the XUL hub at the Mozilla Developer Center.
How do I sort content?
You can sort data as long as it is generated from RDF. It is most common to sort content in a tree, however you can sort any template-generated content.
You can use the sortResource attribute to specify a resource to sort by. Use the sortDirection attribute to specify the direction to sort by. Both attributes must be present to have sorted data.
The following example demonstrates sorting content:
View
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet href="chrome://global/skin/" type="text/css"?>
<window id="sort-window" title="Sort Example"
xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul">
<script>
function changeSort()
{
// get the box to sort
var box = document.getElementById("info");
// if the sort direction is descending, change it to ascending.
// Otherwise, set it to ascending.
if (box.getAttribute("sortDirection") == "descending")
box.setAttribute("sortDirection","ascending");
else box.setAttribute("sortDirection","descending");
// you must rebuild the content after changing sort information
box.builder.rebuild();
}
</script>
<button label="Reverse" oncommand="changeSort();"/>
<vbox id="info" datasources="animals.rdf"
ref="http://www.some-fictitious-zoo.com/mammals" flex="1"
sortResource="http://www.some-fictitious-zoo.com/rdf#name" sortDirection="ascending">
<template>
<label uri="rdf:*" value="rdf:http://www.some-fictitious-zoo.com/rdf#name"/>
</template>
</vbox>
</window>
In this example, data is sorted by name, as indicated by the sortResource attribute. However, any property may be used, even if it isn't displayed.