Magento: add custom sorting option in the admin section - magento

Question

How do I add a custom sorting option in the backend of magento? I want to be able to sort customers by company name in the backend. I simply can't figure out how to add a sorting option.
I found a clever way to get the company name which can be found here.

Answer 1

You have to override the customer grid to do this, to declare the override on your config.xml:
<global>
<adminhtml>
<rewrite>
<customer_grid>Namespace_Module_Block_Rewrite_Customergrid</customer_grid>
</rewrite>
</adminhtml>
</global>
Then you have to create your class on app/code/local/Namespace/Module/Block/Rewrite/Customergrid.php:
<?php
class Namespace_Module_Block_Rewrite_Customergrid extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Customer_Grid
{
protected function _prepareCollection()
{
$collection = Mage::getResourceModel('customer/customer_collection')
->addNameToSelect()
->addAttributeToSelect('email')
->addAttributeToSelect('created_at')
->addAttributeToSelect('group_id')
->joinAttribute('billing_postcode', 'customer_address/postcode', 'default_billing', null, 'left')
->joinAttribute('billing_city', 'customer_address/city', 'default_billing', null, 'left')
->joinAttribute('billing_telephone', 'customer_address/telephone', 'default_billing', null, 'left')
->joinAttribute('billing_region', 'customer_address/region', 'default_billing', null, 'left')
->joinAttribute('billing_country_id', 'customer_address/country_id', 'default_billing', null, 'left')
->joinAttribute('company', 'customer_address/company', 'default_billing', null, 'left');
$this->setCollection($collection);
return parent::_prepareCollection();
}
protected function _prepareColumns()
{
$this->addColumn('entity_id', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('ID'),
'width' => '50px',
'index' => 'entity_id',
'type' => 'number',
));
/*$this->addColumn('firstname', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('First Name'),
'index' => 'firstname'
));
$this->addColumn('lastname', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Last Name'),
'index' => 'lastname'
));*/
$this->addColumn('name', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Name'),
'index' => 'name'
));
$this->addColumn('email', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Email'),
'width' => '150',
'index' => 'email'
));
$groups = Mage::getResourceModel('customer/group_collection')
->addFieldToFilter('customer_group_id', array('gt'=> 0))
->load()
->toOptionHash();
$this->addColumn('group', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Group'),
'width' => '100',
'index' => 'group_id',
'type' => 'options',
'options' => $groups,
));
$this->addColumn('Telephone', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Telephone'),
'width' => '100',
'index' => 'billing_telephone'
));
$this->addColumn('billing_postcode', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('ZIP'),
'width' => '90',
'index' => 'billing_postcode',
));
$this->addColumn('billing_country_id', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Country'),
'width' => '100',
'type' => 'country',
'index' => 'billing_country_id',
));
$this->addColumn('billing_region', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('State/Province'),
'width' => '100',
'index' => 'billing_region',
));
$this->addColumn('customer_since', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Customer Since'),
'type' => 'datetime',
'align' => 'center',
'index' => 'created_at',
'gmtoffset' => true
));
$this->addColumn('company', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Company'),
'width' => '150px',
'index' => 'company',
));
if (!Mage::app()->isSingleStoreMode()) {
$this->addColumn('website_id', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Website'),
'align' => 'center',
'width' => '80px',
'type' => 'options',
'options' => Mage::getSingleton('adminhtml/system_store')->getWebsiteOptionHash(true),
'index' => 'website_id',
));
}
$this->addColumn('action',
array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Action'),
'width' => '100',
'type' => 'action',
'getter' => 'getId',
'actions' => array(
array(
'caption' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Edit'),
'url' => array('base'=> '*/*/edit'),
'field' => 'id'
)
),
'filter' => false,
'sortable' => false,
'index' => 'stores',
'is_system' => true,
));
$this->addExportType('*/*/exportCsv', Mage::helper('customer')->__('CSV'));
$this->addExportType('*/*/exportXml', Mage::helper('customer')->__('Excel XML'));
return parent::_prepareColumns();
}
}
We are extending Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Customer_Grid and copying the functions _prepareCollection() and _prepareColumns() with two key differences. On _prepareCollection() we add:
->joinAttribute('company', 'customer_address/company', 'default_billing', null, 'left')
To load the customer's company and then on _prepareColumns() we add the column you need:
$this->addColumn('company', array(
'header' => Mage::helper('customer')->__('Company'),
'width' => '150px',
'index' => 'company',
));