Question

Is it possible to lock list items in JQuery sortable list in a way that those items will stay in that particular place in the list.

For example,

consider this pseudo list with locked items…

item A
item B(locked)
item C(locked)
item D
item E
item F
item G(locked)

So, I’d like to have the items B,C and G to be fixed in a way that if user drag and drop item D at the start of the list, the item A “jumps” over fixed/locked items B and C with following results…

item D
item B(locked)
item C(locked)
item A
item E
item F
item G(locked)

I’ve been searching for something like this without luck. Is it possible..?

Answer 1

I extended the jQuery.Ui.sortable:

Overview

jQuery.Ui.sortable widget extension with fixed feature. This feature allows user to fix elements in the list.
With the .fixedsortable() constructor you construct a .sortable() class which extended with the features. You can use the original methods and the extended as well.

Code

https://gist.github.com/3758329#file_fixedsortable.js > fixedsortable.js

Example

http://jsfiddle.net/omnosis/jQkdb/

Usage

General:

To use, add the fixed property to the sortable list optios:

$("#list").fixedsortable({
   fixed: (value)
})

the value can be:

• integer example: 3
• array of integers example : [1,2,5]
• a html element or a list of html elements
• a css selector
• jquery object

HTML:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.1/jquery.min.js"></script> //the jquery 
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.13/jquery-ui.min.js"></script> //the original jquery-ui   
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://raw.github.com/gist/3758329/91749ff63cbc5056264389588a8ab64238484d74/fixedsortable.js"></script> //the extended sortable
...
<ul id="sortable1">
    <li>oranges</li>
    <li class="static">apples</li>
    <li>bananas</li>
    <li>pineapples</li>
    <li>grapes</li>
    <li class="static">pears</li>
    <li>mango</li>
</ul>

<ul id="sortable2">
    <li>bananas</li>
    <li foo="asd">oranges</li>
    <li foo="dsa">apples</li>
    <li>pineapples</li>
    <li>grapes</li>
    <li>pears</li>
    <li>mango</li>
</ul>

<ul id="sortable3">
    <li>bananas</li>
    <li>oranges</li>
    <li>apples</li>
    <li>pineapples</li>
    <li>grapes</li>
    <li>pears</li>
    <li>mango</li>
</ul>

Javascript

$(function() {
    $("#sortable1").fixedsortable({
        fixed: "> .static"
    });

    $("#sortable2").fixedsortable({
        fixed: $("li[foo]").css("background","red")
    });

    $("#sortable3").fixedsortable({
        fixed: 2
    })
});

Notes:

If you insist to use the .sortable instead of .fixedsortable you can use this https://gist.github.com/3758329#file_sortable.js instead of the jquery.ui library. This is a complete replacement of the jQuery.ui, but i don’t recommend to use this because of later updates.

i have been working on this more than 12 hours 🙁 i am insane..