knockout-sortable is a binding for Knockout.js designed to connect observableArrays with jQuery UI's sortable functionality. This allows a user to drag and drop items within a list or between lists and have the corresponding observableArrays updated appropriately.

Basic Usage

• using anonymous templates:

<ul data-bind="sortable: items">
  <li data-bind="text: name"></li>
</ul>

• using named templates:

<ul data-bind="sortable: { template: 'itemTmpl', data: items }"></ul>
<script id="itemTmpl" type="text/html"><li data-bind="text: name"></li></script>

Note: The sortable binding assumes that the child "templates" have a single container element. You cannot use containerless bindings (comment-based) bindings at the top-level of your template, as the jQuery draggable/sortable functionality needs an element to operate on.

Note2: (Update: 0.9.0 adds code to automatically strip leading/trailing whitespace) When using named templates, you will have the best results across browsers, if you ensure that there is only a single top-level node inside your template with no surrounding text nodes. Inside of the top-level nodes, you can freely use whitespace/text nodes. So, you will want:

<!-- good - no text nodes surrounding template root node -->
<script id="goodTmpl" type="text/html"><li data-bind="text: name">
    <span data-bind="text: name"></span>
</li></script>

<!-- bad -->
<script id="badTmpl" type="text/html">
<li>
  <span data-bind="text: name"></span>
</li>
</script>

Additional Options

• connectClass - specify the class that should be used to indicate a droppable target. The default class is "ko_container". This value can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.connectClass.

• allowDrop - specify whether this container should be a target for drops. This can be a static value, observable, or a function that is passed the observableArray as its first argument. If a function is specified, then it will be executed in a computed observable, so it will run again whenever any dependencies are updated. This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.allowDrop.

• beforeMove - specify a function to execute prior to an item being moved from its original position to its new position in the data. This function receives an object for its first argument that contains the following information:

  • arg.item - the actual item being moved
  • arg.sourceIndex - the position of the item in the original observableArray
  • arg.sourceParent - the original observableArray
  • arg.sourceParentNode - the container node of the original list
  • arg.targetIndex - the position of the item in the destination observableArray
  • arg.targetParent - the destination observableArray
  • arg.cancelDrop - this defaults to false and can be set to true to indicate that the drop should be cancelled.

  This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.beforeMove. This callback also receives the event and ui objects as the second and third arguments.

• afterMove - specify a function to execute after an item has been moved to its new destination. This function receives an object for its first argument that contains the following information:

  • arg.item - the actual item being moved
  • arg.sourceIndex - the position of the item in the original observableArray
  • arg.sourceParent - the original observableArray
  • arg.sourceParentNode - the container node of the original list. Useful if moving items between lists, but within a single array. The value of this in the callback will be the target container node.
  • arg.targetIndex - the position of the item in the destination observableArray
  • arg.targetParent - the destination observableArray

  This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.afterMove. This callback also receives the event and ui objects as the second and third arguments.

• dragged - specify a function to execute after a draggable item has been dropped into a sortable. This callback receives the drag item as the first argument, the event as the second argument, and the ui object as the third argument. If the function returns a value, then it will be used as item that is dropped into the sortable. This can be used as an alternative to the original item including a clone function.

• isEnabled - specify whether the sortable widget should be enabled. If this is an observable, then it will enable/disable the widget when the observable's value changes. This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.isEnabled.

• strategyMove - specify whether dropping an item within the same list should move the same item to the new index rather than removing and re-adding the item in the new location (which is the default and causes the item to be re-rendered). This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.strategyMove. The default value is false.

• options - specify any additional options to pass on to the .sortable jQuery UI call. These options can be specified in the binding or specified globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.sortable.options.

• afterAdd, beforeRemove, afterRender, includeDestroyed, templateEngine, as - this binding will pass these options on to the template binding.

Draggable binding

This library also includes a draggable binding that you can place on single items that can be moved into a sortable collection. When the item is dropped into a sortable, the plugin will attempt to call a clone function on the item to make a suitable copy of it, otherwise it will use the item directly. Additionally, the dragged callback can be used to provide a copy of the object, as described above.

• using anonymous templates:

<div data-bind="draggable: item">
  <span data-bind="text: name"></span>
</div>

• using named templates:

<div data-bind="draggable: { template: 'itemTmpl', data: item }"></div>
<script id="itemTmpl" type="text/html"><span data-bind="text: name"></span></script>

Additional Options

• connectClass - specify a class used to indicate which sortables that this draggable should be allowed to drop into. The default class is "ko_container". This value can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.draggable.connectClass.

• isEnabled - specify whether the draggable widget should be enabled. If this is an observable, then it will enable/disable the widget when the observable's value changes. This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.draggable.isEnabled.

• options - specify any additional options to pass on to the .draggable jQuery UI call. These options can be specified in the binding or specified globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.draggable.options.

Droppable binding

This library also includes a droppable binding that you can place on items which are targets for any draggable item. The binding can update an observable or a simple function on your viewmodel.

<div data-bind="droppable: dropTo">
  <span>Drop Items Here</span>
</div>

Additional options

• isEnabled - specify whether the droppable widget should be enabled. If this is an observable, then it will enable/disable the widget when the observable's value changes. This option can be passed in the binding or configured globally by setting ko.bindingHandlers.droppable.isEnabled.

• options - specify any additional option to pass to the .droppable jQuery UI call. When using options, your method or observable should be provided on the data property.

<div data-bind="droppable: {data:dropTo, isEnabled:enableDrop, options:{greedy:true}}">
  <span>Drop Items Here</span>
</div

Dependencies

• Knockout 2.0+
• jQuery - no specific version identified yet as minimum
• jQuery UI - If needing AMD/CommonJS support, then it requires >=1.12 (or ensuring that paths are mapped via config properly - it looks for jquery-ui/ui/widgets/sortable and jquery-ui/ui/widgets/draggable)

Touch Support - for touch support take a look at: http://touchpunch.furf.com/

Build: This project uses grunt for building/minifying.

Examples The examples directory contains samples that include a simple sortable list, connected lists, and a seating chart that takes advantage of many of the additional options.

Fiddles

• simple: http://jsfiddle.net/rniemeyer/hw9B2/
• connected: http://jsfiddle.net/rniemeyer/Jr2rE/
• draggable: http://jsfiddle.net/rniemeyer/AC49j/
• seating chart: http://jsfiddle.net/rniemeyer/UdXr4/

License: MIT http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php