Problem with AllowNaturalSort

[Sean]

I am using the Q2 2009 version of the grid control.  The AllowNaturalSort property is set to True, but when I click on the grid column header it only toggles between sorting Asc and Desc.  The documentation says that it should go from Asc -> Desc - > Unsorted, but this does not happen in my grid.  Is there a bug with the AllowNaturalSort property?  I want to be able to toggle the sorting simply by clicking the column header (no extra button to remove sorting).

Thanks,
Sean

[Jack]

Hi Sean,

There is a bug in our documentation. You can remove the sorting by using the context menu Clear sorting option. If you need further assistance, please write back.

Sincerely yours,
Jack
the Telerik team

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[Sean]

Thanks for the quick reply.  However, I have disabled the grid context menu, and I think it would be unclear for users to know that they can sort by clicking on the column header, but they have to right click and choose "Clear" to remove sorting.  What I would really like to be able to do is when clicking the column header rotate through the different sort options (Asc, Desc, No Sort).  I tried handling the SortChanging event of the grid, but did not have any luck.  Could you please advise?

Thanks,
Sean

[Sean]

Okay, this is the workaround that I came up with (for anyone who is interested).

I created a member variable  named _previousGridColumnSortDirection which is used to indicate the sort direction from the last time the column was sorted.  If this is set to descending and the current sorting is Ascending then I clear out the sorting.  This seems to work so far with no issues.

Private Sub rgvLines_SortChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Telerik.WinControls.UI.GridViewCollectionChangedEventArgs) Handles rgvLines.SortChanged
        Dim sortField As GridSortField

        'Only proceed if we are changing an existing sorting (not starting a new one)
        If e.Action = Data.NotifyCollectionChangedAction.ItemChanged Then

            'Make sure we have an item
            If e.NewItems IsNot Nothing AndAlso _
                e.NewItems.Count > 0 Then

                sortField = CType(e.NewItems(0), GridSortField)

                'If the current SortOrder is Ascending, and the previous SortOrder was Descending, then
                'clear the sorting.
                If sortField.SortOrder = RadSortOrder.Ascending AndAlso _
                    _previousGridColumnSortDirection = RadSortOrder.Descending Then

                    sortField.SortOrder = RadSortOrder.None

                End If

                'Save the SortOrder for the next iteration
                _previousGridColumnSortDirection = sortField.SortOrder

            End If

        End If

    End Sub

[Jack]

Hi Sean, I tested your workaround. Nice job. Thank you for sharing it with the community. We will consider adding this option in one of our upcoming releases.

Sincerely yours,
Jack
the Telerik team

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Watch a video on how to optimize your support resource searches and check out more tips on the blogs.