Add drag-and-drop positioning for categories scoped by category type by Copilot · Pull Request #712 · rubyforgood/awbw

Copilot · 2026-01-19T15:25:40Z

What is the goal of this PR and why is this important?

Implements drag-and-drop reordering for categories on the categories index page, matching the existing FAQ implementation. Positions are scoped to metadatum_id (category_type) so categories of different types maintain independent position sequences.

How did you approach the change?

Model (category.rb)

Added positioned scope: :metadatum_id to enable position management per category type

Controller (categories_controller.rb)

Handle ordering parameter in update action for drag-and-drop position updates
Validate ordering is a positive integer (regex check prevents silent conversion of invalid input)
Return appropriate HTTP status: 200 (success), 400 (invalid input), 422 (update failed)

View (categories/index.html.erb)

Added drag handle column with data-sortable-handle icon
Added data-controller="sortable" and data-sortable-url-value to tbody
Added data-sortable-id to each row

Tests

Request specs for position updates with valid/invalid ordering values
Model specs verifying position scoping by metadatum_id
Uses factories for consistency

Reuses existing sortable_controller.js Stimulus controller and positioning gem (v0.4.7).

Anything else to add?

Position updates work across paginated results since the positioning gem handles server-side state. Categories can share position values across different category types due to the metadatum_id scope.

Original prompt

Use position gem to be able to drag and drop categories on categories index, and automatically updating position values. (we have an implementation on faq's index)
Positions should be relevant within their category_type(metadatam_id) only.

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maebeale · 2026-01-19T15:51:29Z

@jmilljr24 lgtm, but you have more context on gem implementation. main thing is scoping the position uniqueness to within the CategoryType (via metadatum_id, until that table gets renamed and it can be category_type_id)

i've got a separate pr to fix the allow_nil in the category model.

jmilljr24 · 2026-01-19T15:53:18Z

@jmilljr24 lgtm, but you have more context on gem implementation. main thing is scoping the position uniqueness to within the CategoryType (via metadatum_id, until that table gets renamed and it can be category_type_id)

i've got a separate pr to fix the allow_nil in the category model.

Awesome! Yes, scoping is a great feature!!

jmilljr24 · 2026-01-20T00:51:08Z

Check out the stimulus controller we have sortable_controller.js. That handles all the requests to the controller and a simple
@category.update(category_params) is all you need.

jmilljr24

@maebeale Love this feature. Can you update the stimulus sortable controller to send the param as position: instead of ordering: I missed it when we changed everything over to the same column name. Faq is broken at the moment.

body: JSON.stringify({ position: newIndex + 1 })

Once merged we can just run Category.heal_position_column! in production to dedup positions and remove the default value.

jmilljr24 · 2026-01-23T10:43:37Z

app/controllers/categories_controller.rb

+    if params[:ordering].present?
+      ordering = params[:ordering]
+      # Validate ordering is a valid positive integer
+      if ordering.to_s.match?(/^\d+$/) && (ordering = ordering.to_i) > 0
+        if @category.update(position: ordering)
+          head :ok
+        else
+          head :unprocessable_entity
+        end
+      else
+        head :bad_request
+      end
+      return
+    end


Shouldn't need this. @category.update(category_params) should do the trick and the position gem will handle validation.

@jmilljr24 i removed it and the UI stopped working and my tests were failing, so i'm going to keep it for now and figure out how to remove it later.

nvm. i see now it's bc of the stimulus controller sending ordering param instead of position!

jmilljr24 · 2026-01-23T14:41:12Z

app/frontend/javascript/controllers/sortable_controller.js

    const url = this.urlValue.replace(":id", id);
    put(url, {
-      body: JSON.stringify({ ordering: newIndex + 1 }), // add 1 to change sortablejs 0-based index to 1-based for positioning gem
+      body: JSON.stringify({ position: newIndex + 1 }), // add 1 to change sortablejs 0-based index to 1-based for positioning gem


Thank you!!!

Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

…coverage Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

…rmatting Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

* note * Small fixes

… as the column did

…me (tho no positions should match using position gem)

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:31:10Z

app/controllers/api/v1/quotes_controller.rb

                                      " user authentication", required: true
-  param :sector, String, desc: "One of #{Sector.all.pluck(:name).join(', ')}"
+  # param :sector, String, desc: "One of #{Sector.all.pluck(:name).join(', ')}"
+  param :sector, String, desc: "Sector name"


this was blowing up after upgrading ruby

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:31:38Z

app/controllers/categories_controller.rb

-      render :edit, status: :unprocessable_content
+    respond_to do |format|
+      if @category.update(category_params)
+        format.html { redirect_to categories_path, notice: "Category was successfully updated.", status: :see_other }


added formats

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:32:32Z

app/models/category.rb

@@ -1,16 +1,25 @@
 class Category < ApplicationRecord
  include NameFilterable
+  include Positioning


@jmilljr24 did i need to do this?

I don't think so. I don't see any reference in the doc's of having to include anything. just the basic positioned method is all thats needed. Then anything extra for scopes etc.

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:33:43Z

db/schema.rb

    t.string "country"
    t.string "device_type"
    t.string "ip"
-    t.text "landing_page", size: :medium


i thought we'd gotten out of this back and forth :(

from production

create_table "ahoy_visits", charset: "utf8mb4", collation: "utf8mb4_unicode_ci", force: :cascade do |t| t.string "app_version" t.string "browser" t.string "city" t.string "country" t.string "device_type" t.string "ip" t.text "landing_page", size: :medium

The change you pushed seemed to at least fix the charset and collation changes in my db, so progress!

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:34:15Z

db/schema.rb

  end

  add_foreign_key "action_text_mentions", "action_text_rich_texts"
-  add_foreign_key "active_storage_attachments", "active_storage_blobs", column: "blob_id"


@jmilljr24 is this odd to be removed from schema?

Yeah, not sure why thats happening. Looking at the schema.rb file generate in the production server, that line is in there.

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:35:16Z

spec/models/category_spec.rb

    it "orders categories by position first, then by name" do
-      cat_c_pos_30 = create(:category, name: "C Category", position: 30, category_type: category_type)
      cat_a_pos_1 = create(:category, name: "A Category", position: 1, category_type: category_type)
-      cat_b_pos_1 = create(:category, name: "B Category", position: 1, category_type: category_type)


don't need two 1's anymore, since that's now invalid

maebeale · 2026-01-25T23:36:34Z

spec/views/categories/new.html.erb_spec.rb

    assert_select "form[action=?][method=?]", categories_path, "post" do
      assert_select "input[name=?]", "category[name]"
      assert_select "select[name=?]", "category[metadatum_id]"
-      assert_select "input[name=?][type=number]", "category[position]"


it's no longer editable in the UI

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and maebeale Jan 19, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of maebeale January 19, 2026 15:26 View session

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Add drag and drop functionality for categories index~~ Add drag-and-drop positioning for categories scoped by category type Jan 19, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from maebeale January 19, 2026 15:37

Copilot finished work on behalf of maebeale January 19, 2026 15:37

maebeale marked this pull request as ready for review January 19, 2026 15:49

jmilljr24 approved these changes Jan 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

maebeale force-pushed the copilot/enable-drag-and-drop-categories branch from 7e07d0e to f6ce54f Compare January 23, 2026 14:40

jmilljr24 reviewed Jan 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

maebeale force-pushed the copilot/enable-drag-and-drop-categories branch from b9168e5 to 17a4876 Compare January 25, 2026 16:13

maebeale and others added 16 commits January 25, 2026 12:38

Upgrading ruby choked on this line

2433294

Initial plan

d2621e5

Add positioning functionality to categories with drag-and-drop support

6868f51

Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

Add tests for category positioning functionality

f48878c

Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

Add validation and error handling for position updates, improve test …

fc75a3b

…coverage Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

Improve validation robustness, fix test mocking, and clean up view fo…

bf30088

…rmatting Co-authored-by: maebeale <7607813+maebeale@users.noreply.github.com>

Update tags ux (#714)

84414bc

* note * Small fixes

Move dnd arrow into column w name so it doesn't take up as much width…

dacfd50

… as the column did

Rubocop and header

ebe566a

Use new scope on categories to order first by position and then by na…

6f25c55

…me (tho no positions should match using position gem)

Hide manually inputted position data, and remove the extra validation

acc05c8

Keep this for now

2db8644

Change position to be display only, and test unhappy paths

567036f

Fix sortable_controller param

7bbfe6d

Change position default to nil on categories table

5cb1fbe

Allow nil so tests can run (and it's what gem expects)

26ad452

Change test to confirm nil is valid

3b9e531

maebeale force-pushed the copilot/enable-drag-and-drop-categories branch from 17a4876 to 3b9e531 Compare January 25, 2026 17:39

maebeale added 4 commits January 25, 2026 13:07

Ensure positioning is scoping to within metadataum_id (category_type)

45de6eb

Update category spec

03ef134

Refresh gems

d2fd70f

Rubocop spacing

b5aef7c

maebeale merged commit 41d32c1 into main Jan 25, 2026
3 checks passed

maebeale deleted the copilot/enable-drag-and-drop-categories branch January 25, 2026 23:30

maebeale reviewed Jan 25, 2026

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Copilot AI commented Jan 19, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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What is the goal of this PR and why is this important?

How did you approach the change?

Anything else to add?

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maebeale commented Jan 19, 2026

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jmilljr24 commented Jan 19, 2026

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jmilljr24 commented Jan 20, 2026

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Copilot AI commented Jan 19, 2026 •

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