In my opinion, it's "conceptually" wrong. When the user clicks on a column, it expects the sorting on that specifc column. I'd implement this functionality by adding a button that performs the sorting and setting all the columns unsortable. It would clearly indicate to the user what is going on.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
<script type="text/javascript">
var _lastSortDirection = "ASC";
var click = function () {
var originalRemoteSort = App._str.remoteSort;
App._str.remoteSort = false;
if (_lastSortDirection == "DESC") {
_lastSortDirection = "ASC";
}
else {
_lastSortDirection = "DESC";
}
App._str.sort('ID', _lastSortDirection);
App._str.remoteSort = originalRemoteSort;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<ext:ResourceManager runat="server" />
<ext:Button Text="Sort by Invisible Column" runat="server">
<Listeners>
<Click Handler="click();" />
</Listeners>
</ext:Button>
<ext:GridPanel runat="server" Title="Records" Frame="false" Width="500" Height="500">
<Store>
<ext:Store ID="_str" runat="server">
<Proxy>
<ext:AjaxProxy Url="/Example/LoadFakeRecords/">
<ActionMethods Read="POST" />
<Reader>
<ext:JsonReader Root="data" />
</Reader>
</ext:AjaxProxy>
</Proxy>
<Model>
<ext:Model runat="server">
<Fields>
<ext:ModelField Name="ID" Type="int" />
<ext:ModelField Name="Name" Type="String" />
<ext:ModelField Name="Address" Type="String" />
</Fields>
</ext:Model>
</Model>
</ext:Store>
</Store>
<ColumnModel runat="server">
<Columns>
<ext:Column Text="Name" Sortable="false" DataIndex="Name" runat="server" />
<ext:Column Text="Address" Sortable="false" DataIndex="Address" runat="server" />
</Columns>
</ColumnModel>
</ext:GridPanel>
</body>
</html>
namespace SandBox.Controllers
{
public class ExampleController : System.Web.Mvc.Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public StoreResult LoadFakeRecords()
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(3));
List<Person> lst = new List<Person>();
for (int index = 0; index < 15; index++)
{
lst.Add(new Person
{
ID = index,
Name = "Name" + index,
Address = "Address" + index,
});
}
return new StoreResult(lst, lst.Count());
}
}
public class Person
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
}
}