tobento/js-sortable

A simple and lightweight JavaScript library for reorderable drag-and-drop lists or items.

1.0.0 2025-08-06 09:17 UTC

This package is auto-updated.

Last update: 2025-08-06 09:21:28 UTC


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

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"}'>
Option Value Description
"id" "ID" A unique id.
"selector" ".item" The items selector
"nestable" true or false When true, items can be nested if "li" selector. But you may set to false if you want only a one depth list. (optional)
"handle" .handle A handle selector to drag items only with. (optional)
"allow" ["id", "anotherId"] You may set the allowed ids to be sorted within. (optional)
"clone" true or false When true, the drag item will be cloned. (optional)
"ghost" true or false When false, the ghost image will not be displayed. (optional)

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

Event Description
dragstart This event is fired when the user starts dragging an element.
dragend This event is fired when a drag operation ends.
dragover This event is fired when an element is being dragged over a valid drop target.
dragleave This event is fired when a dragged element leaves a valid drop target.
drop This event is fired when an element is dropped on a valid drop target.
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