- if attr.match /^[a-z][_a-z0-9]+$/ and
- model_class.columns.collect(&:name).index(attr) and
- ['asc','desc'].index direction.downcase
- @orders << "#{table_name}.#{attr} #{direction.downcase}"
+ # The attr can have its table unspecified if it happens to be for the current "model_class" (the first case)
+ # or it can be fully specified with the database tablename (the second case) (e.g. "collections.name").
+ # NB that the security check for the second case table_name will not work if the model
+ # has used set_table_name to use an alternate table name from the Rails standard.
+ # I could not find a perfect way to handle this well, but ActiveRecord::Base.send(:descendants)
+ # would be a place to start if this ever becomes necessary.
+ if (attr.match(/^[a-z][_a-z0-9]+$/) &&
+ model_class.columns.collect(&:name).index(attr) &&
+ ['asc','desc'].index(direction.downcase))
+ if fill_table_names
+ @orders << "#{table_name}.#{attr} #{direction.downcase}"
+ else
+ @orders << "#{attr} #{direction.downcase}"
+ end
+ elsif attr.match(/^([a-z][_a-z0-9]+)\.([a-z][_a-z0-9]+)$/) and
+ ['asc','desc'].index(direction.downcase) and
+ ActiveRecord::Base.connection.tables.include?($1) and
+ $1.classify.constantize.columns.collect(&:name).index($2)
+ # $1 in the above checks references the first match from the regular expression, which is expected to be the database table name
+ # $2 is of course the actual database column name
+ @orders << "#{attr} #{direction.downcase}"