DefaultOrder ============ Author : Antonin AMAND Email : aamand@gwikzone.org The default_order plugin provides a 'order_by' method to be called in your models. ex : class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base order_by "first_name, last_name" end the order_by method will append the given argument to :order Hash key of ActiveRecord::Base.find method IF IT HAS NOT BEEN PROVIDED. ex : Contact.find(:all, :conditions => "last_name LIKE '%toto%'") # will act as if you had written this Contact.find(:all, :order => "last_name, first_name", :conditions => "last_name LIKE '%toto%'") # but if you provide :order it will override the default order If you use those attributes in other models, you may want to specify the table_name : class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base order_by "contacts.first_name, contacts.last_name" end