Initial changes in announcement for sorting and filtering

app/helpers/application_helper.rb

@@ -55,5 +55,33 @@ module ApplicationHelper
       render :partial => partial, :object => new_object, :locals => {:f => f}
     end
   end
+  
+  def active_for_controllers(*controller_names)
+    controller_names.include?(controller.controller_name) ? 'active' : nil
+  end
+
+  def visible_for_controllers(*controller_names)
+    controller_names.include?(controller.controller_name) ? '' : 'hide'
+  end
+  
+  def active_for_action(controller_name, action_name)
+    (controller.controller_name.eql?(controller_name) && controller.action_name.eql?(action_name)) ? 'active' : nil
+  end
+
+  def sortable(column)
+    direction = (column == params[:sort] && params[:direction] == "asc") ? "desc" : "asc"
+    {:sort => column, :direction => direction}
+  end
+
+  def add_filter(param_name, value)
+    filter = params[:filter] rescue nil
+    if filter && filter.has_key(param_name)
+      filter[param_name] << value
+    elsif filter
+      filter.merge({param_name => [value]})
+    else
+      {param_name => [value]}
+    end
+  end
 
 end