GUI -- Refactoring of server-side message handlers (Part One).

Change-Id: I895cef0545f7ba4b78a2adfa2bad9d889ca0104a
diff --git a/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/ui/table/RowComparator.java b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/ui/table/RowComparator.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9859a65
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/ui/table/RowComparator.java
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2015 Open Networking Laboratory
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.onosproject.ui.table;
+
+import java.util.Comparator;
+
+/**
+ * Comparator for {@link TableRow}.
+ */
+public class RowComparator implements Comparator<TableRow> {
+    /** Designates the sort direction. */
+    public enum Direction {
+        /** Sort Ascending. */
+        ASC,
+        /** Sort Descending. */
+        DESC
+    }
+
+    public static final String DESC_STR = "desc";
+
+    private final String colId;
+    private final Direction dir;
+
+    /**
+     * Constructs a comparator for table rows that uses the given
+     * column ID and direction.
+     *
+     * @param colId the column to sort on
+     * @param dir the direction to sort in
+     */
+    public RowComparator(String colId, Direction dir) {
+        if (colId == null || dir == null) {
+            throw new NullPointerException("Null parameters not allowed");
+        }
+        this.colId = colId;
+        this.dir = dir;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int compare(TableRow a, TableRow b) {
+        String cellA = a.get(colId);
+        String cellB = b.get(colId);
+
+        if (dir.equals(Direction.ASC)) {
+            return cellA.compareTo(cellB);
+        }
+        return cellB.compareTo(cellA);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the sort direction constant for the given string.
+     * The expected strings are "asc" and "desc"; defaults to "asc".
+     *
+     * @param s the direction as a string
+     * @return the constant
+     */
+    public static Direction direction(String s) {
+        return DESC_STR.equals(s) ? Direction.DESC : Direction.ASC;
+    }
+}