NOTE: Please use the develop branch

Until further notice, the develop branch is to be considered the most stable and active one. I will only accept pull requests made on the develp branch.

nestedSortable jQuery plugin

nestedSortable is a jQuery plugin that extends jQuery Sortable UI functionalities to nested lists.

Features

• Designed to work seamlessly with the nested set model (have a look at the toArray method)
• Items can be sorted in their own list, moved across the tree, or nested under other items.
• Sublists are created and deleted on the fly
• All jQuery Sortable options, events and methods are available
• It is possible to define elements that will not accept a new nested item/list
• It is possible to define a maximum depth for nested items

Usage

<ol class="sortable">
	<li><div>Some content</div></li>
	<li>
		<div>Some content</div>
		<ol>
			<li><div>Some sub-item content</div></li>
			<li><div>Some sub-item content</div></li>
		</ol>
	</li>
	<li><div>Some content</div></li>
</ol>

Please note: every <li> must have either one or two direct children, the first one being a container element (such as <div> in the above example), and the (optional) second one being the nested list. The container element has to be set as the 'toleranceElement' in the options, and this, or one of its children, as the 'handle'.

Custom Options

tabSize

How far right or left (in pixels) the item has to travel in order to be nested or to be sent outside its current list. Default: 20

disableNesting

The class name of the items that will not accept nested lists. Default: ui-nestedSortable-no-nesting

errorClass

The class given to the placeholder in case of error. Default: ui-nestedSortable-error

listType

The list type used (ordered or unordered). Default: ol

maxLevels

The maximum depth of nested items the list can accept. If set to '0' the levels are unlimited. Default: 0

Custom Methods

serialize

Serializes the nested list into a string like setName[item1Id]=parentId&setName[item2Id]=parentId, reading from each item's id formatted as 'setName_itemId' (where itemId is a number). It accepts the same options as the original Sortable method (key, attribute and expression).

toArray

Builds an array where each element is in the form:

setName[n] =>
{
	'item_id': itemId,
	'parent_id': parentId,
	'depth': depth,
	'left': left,
	'right': right,
}

It accepts the same options as the original Sortable method (attribute and expression) plus the custom startDepthCount, that sets the starting depth number (default is 0).

toHierarchy

Builds a hierarchical object in the form:

'0' ...
	'id' => itemId
'1' ...
	'id' => itemId
	'children' ...
		'0' ...
			'id' => itemId
		'1' ...
			'id' => itemId
'2' ...
	'id' => itemId

Similarly to toArray, it accepts attribute and expression options.

Known Bugs

nestedSortable doesn't work properly with connected draggables, because of the way Draggable simulates Sortable mouseStart and mouseStop events. This bug might or might not be fixed some time in the future (it's not specific to this plugin).

Requirements

jQuery 1.4+
jQuery UI Sortable 1.8+

Browser Compatibility

Tested with: IE 6/7/8, Firefox 3.6/4, Chrome, Safari 3

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This work is pizzaware. If it saved your life, or you just feel good at heart, please consider offering me a pizza. This can be done in two ways: (1) use the Paypal button at the bottom of the project's home page; (2) send me cash via traditional mail to my home address in Italy. Is the second method legal? It is in Italy if you use Posta assicurata. You should check with your local laws if you live elsewhere.