README

A simple and lightweight JavaScript library for reorderable drag-and-drop lists or items. It uses the HTML Drag and Drop API which is sadly not supported by touch devices.

You may visit the docs.tobento.ch/js-sortable page for demo.

Table of Contents

• Getting started
  • Browser support
• Documentation
  • Basic Usage
  • Options
  • Methods
  • Events
  • Learn More
    • Updating A Sortable List
    • Supporting Touch Devices
• Credits

Getting started

Browser support

Modern browser only. No touch devices.

Documentation

Basic Usage

1. Include JS

<script src="sortables.js" type="module"></script>

2. Register

Use the data-sortable attribute to automatically register a sortable.

<ul data-sortable='{"id": "uniqueID", "selector": "li", "nestable": true}'>
    <li><div class="box">1 - List Item</div></li>
    <li><div class="box">2 - List Item</div></li>
    <li><div class="box">3 - List Item</div></li>
    <li><div class="box">4 - List Item</div></li>
    <li><div class="box">5 - List Item</div>
        <ul>
            <li><div class="box">5.1 - List Item</div></li>
            <li><div class="box">5.2 - List Item</div></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li><div class="box">6 - List Item</div></li>
    <li><div class="box">7 - List Item</div></li>
    <li><div class="box">8 - List Item</div></li>
</ul>

<div data-sortable='{"id": "cards", "selector": ".card", "handle": ".handle"}'>
    <div class="card">1 - Card<span class="handle">Drag</span></div>
    <div class="card">2 - Card<span class="handle">Drag</span></div>
    <div class="card">3 - Card<span class="handle">Drag</span></div>
    <div class="card">4 - Card<span class="handle">Drag</span></div>
</div>

Thats all.

You may get the sorted items

<script type="module">
    import sortables from "sortables.js";

    document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (e) => {
        const items = sortables.get('uniqueID').items();
        
        // or using the drop event
        sortables.get('uniqueID').listen('drop', (event, sortable) => {
            const items = sortable.items();
        });
    });
</script>

Manually creating

Instead of using the data-sortable attribute to register the sortable automatically, you can create sortables manually by using the create function:

<script type="module">
    import sortables from "sortables.js";

    document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (e) => {
        // create it manually:
        const sortable = sortables.create(document.querySelector('#container'), {
            id: 'uniqueID',
            selector: '.item'
        });
        
        // you may get the sorted items using the drop event:
        sortable.listen('drop', (event, sortable) => {
            const items = sortable.items();
        });
    });
</script>

Options

<ul data-sortable='{"id": "uniqueID", "selector": "li", "nestable": true, "handle": ".drag"}'>

Methods

<script type="module">
    import sortables from "sortables.js";

    document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (e) => {
        // create a sortable object:
        const sortable = sortables.create(document.querySelector('#container'), {
            id: 'ID',
            selector: '.item'
        });
        
        // you may get a sortable object by id:
        const sortable = sortable.get('ID');
        
        // you may check if a sortable object exists:
        if (sortable.has('ID')) {
            //
        }
        
        // you may get the sortable items:
        const items = sortable.items();
        
        // you may delete a sortable:
        sortables.delete('ID');
        
        // you may register newly added sortables with the data-sortable attribute:
        sortables.register();
    });
</script>

Events

sortables.get('uniqueID').listen('drop', (event, sortable) => {
    const items = sortable.items();
});

Learn More

Updating A Sortable List

This example shows a possible way to update a reoredered list.

<script type="module">
    import sortables from "sortables.js";

    document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (e) => {
        const sortable = sortables.get('list');
        
        sortable.listen('drop', (event, sortable) => {
            // Get the ul element where the item was dropped:
            const ul = sortable.draggable.closest('ul');
            
            // Determine the parent id:
            let parentId = 0;
            const parent = ul.parentNode;
            
            if (parent && parent.hasAttribute('data-id')) {
                parentId = parent.getAttribute('data-id');
            }
            
            // Get only those li elements within the current ul element (without children):
            const items = ul.querySelectorAll(':scope > li');
            
            // Build your data structure to update your items using the Fetch API.
            const data = {};
            const length = items.length;
            
            for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
                data[i] = {};
                data[i]['id'] = items[i].getAttribute('data-menu-id');
                data[i]['parent_id'] = parentId;
                data[i]['sortorder'] = i+1;
            }
            
            console.log(data);
        });
    });
</script>

<ul data-sortable='{"id": "list", "selector": "li", "nestable": true}'>
    <li data-id="1"><div class="box">1 - List Item</div></li>
    <li data-id="2"><div class="box">2 - List Item</div></li>
    <li data-id="3"><div class="box">3 - List Item</div></li>
    <li data-id="4"><div class="box">4 - List Item</div></li>
    <li data-id="5"><div class="box">5 - List Item</div>
        <ul>
            <li data-id="9"><div class="box">5.1 - List Item</div></li>
            <li data-id="10"><div class="box">5.2 - List Item</div></li>
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li data-id="6"><div class="box">6 - List Item</div></li>
    <li data-id="7"><div class="box">7 - List Item</div></li>
    <li data-id="8"><div class="box">8 - List Item</div></li>
</ul>

Supporting Touch Devices

To support touch devices you may consider a polyfill such as the Dragdroptouch.

Credits

• Tobias Strub
• All Contributors