Jquery sortable - Sort list manual

Question

How can a sort the listitems with the sortList[0] or sortList[1]?

example: http://jsfiddle.net/wmaqb/20/

HTML

 <div id="sortable">        
    <div id="sort_18b0c79408a72">Berlin</div>
    <div id="sort_dkj8das9sd98a">Munich</div>
    <div id="sort_skd887f987sad">Browntown</div>
    <div id="sort_54asdliöldawf">Halle</div>
    <div id="sort_f5456sdfefsdf">Hamburg</div>     
</div>

<input id="sortList0Bt" type="button" value="sortList0" />
<input id="sortList1Bt" type="button" value="sortList1" />

JS

sortList= new Array();

sortList[0] = {};
sortList[0]['18b0c79408a72'] = 6;
sortList[0]['dkj8das9sd98a'] = 9;
sortList[0]['skd887f987sad'] = 3;
sortList[0]['54asdliöldawf'] = 1;
sortList[0]['f5456sdfefsdf'] = 5;

sortList[1] = {};     
sortList[1]['18b0c79408a72'] = 1;
sortList[1]['dkj8das9sd98a'] = 2;
sortList[1]['skd887f987sad'] = 3;
sortList[1]['54asdliöldawf'] = 4;
sortList[1]['f5456sdfefsdf'] = 5;   

$("#sortable").sortable();

$('#sortList0Bt').click(function() {  sortIt(sortList[0]);   });
$('#sortList1Bt').click(function() {  sortIt(sortList[1]);   });  

JS - sort function

function sortIt(sortList)
{
   var mylist = $('#sortable');
   var listitems = mylist.children('div').get();

   listitems.sort(function(a, b)
   {
        // --------------- >>> HERE <<< --------------
   }); 

   $.each(listitems, function(idx, itm) { mylist.append(itm); });
}

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Basically you want multiple buttons that sort the same list in a different way, if I understand you correctly?

I would suggest changing the following:

<input id="sortList0Bt" class="sortbutton" type="button" value="sortList0" />
<input id="sortList1Bt" class="sortbutton" type="button" value="sortList1" />

$('.sortbutton').click(function() {  
    var id = parseInt($(this).val().replace("sortList","")); 
    //The above gives you "0" or "1" which is then parsed to an int
    sortIt(sortList[id]);  
});

Now you don't have any click-handling hardcoded, only the buttons themselves.

It does seem rather inefficient to have to manually create your sort-arrays like you do. I'm not sure how much freedom you have when using .sortable() or with the div ID's (those ID's themselves aren't making it clearer either), but I would suggest doing this via classes or adding an element inside the div which your sort function can use to order them.

E.g.:

<div id="sort_18b0c79408a72">
    Berlin
    <input type="hidden" class="sort_me_for_button_0" id="0_1">
    <input type="hidden" class="sort_me_for_button_1" id="1_4">
</div>

If button 0 is clicked, the element will be displayed in 1st place. If button 1 is clicked, the element will be displayed in 4th place. Fully writing this will take some amount of brain power but I think it's the most efficient and clear way to handle this.

To give you an idea of how you would sort them:

<div id="mysortedlist"></div>

function sortIt(id) { //not the sortList, just the 0 or 1 int we parsed earlier.
    var number_of_items = $(".sort_me_for_button_"+id).length; //Now we know how many items there are to sort.

    for (int i = 1; i < number_of_items + 1; i++) {
        $("#mysortedlist").append( $("#" + id + "_" + i).parent() ); //the parent() is the div in which the hidden field resides.
    };

    $("#sortable").html($("#mysortedlist").html());
}