jQuery UI saving sortable list to PHP array

Question

I'm trying to save the order of a table with jQuery UI (sortable) to a PHP array.

I have simplified it very considerably but this is the basic idea of it. I have a table with a sortable list embedded in it. The table is generated through a PHP foreach involving the multi-dimensional array that is included in another file (config.php).

config.php:

<?php
$config     = array(
    "mno" => array('item 5'),
    "abc" => array('item 1'),
    "ghi" => array('item 3'),
    "pqr" => array('item 6'),
    "jkl" => array('item 4'),
    "vwx" => array('item 8'),
    "def" => array('item 2'),
    "stu" => array('item 7'),
);
?>

table (index.html):

<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="center" id="mytable">
    <tbody>

<?php
    $i = 0;
    include 'config.php';
    foreach($config AS $name => $value){
        $item = $value[0];
        echo '
        <tr id="'.$name.'-'.$i++.'">
            <td>'.$item.'</td>
        </tr>';
    }
?>

    </tbody>
</table>

scripts (index.html):

<!-- Add jQuery library -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>
<!-- Add jQuery UI library -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        var fixHelper = function(e, ui) {
            ui.children().each(function() {
                $(this).width($(this).width());
            });
            return ui;
        };

        $("#mytable tbody").sortable({
            helper: fixHelper,
            opacity: 0.5,
            scroll: false,
            update: function () {
                var data = $('#mytable tbody').sortable('serialize');
                $.post("edit.php", {'neworder': data});
            }
        }).disableSelection();
    });
</script>

The sorting works fine but I don't know how to save the neworder value ($_POST['neworder']) into the array what is in config.php.

I think I must use the PHP functions uasort() (or uksort(), uksort()) with the combination of file_put_contents to save the new order in config.php.

So something like this:

<?php
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST' && isset($_POST['neworder'])) {
    /* 
    Here file_put_contents in config.php the new order. So:
    $config     = array(
        "mno" => array('item 5'),
        "abc" => array('item 1'),
        "ghi" => array('item 3'),
        "pqr" => array('item 6'),
        "jkl" => array('item 4'),
        "vwx" => array('item 8'),
        "def" => array('item 2'),
        "stu" => array('item 7'),
    );

    Becomes:
    $config     = array(
        "abc" => array('item 1'),
        "def" => array('item 2'),
        "ghi" => array('item 3'),
        "jkl" => array('item 4'),
        "mno" => array('item 5'),
        "pqr" => array('item 6'),
        "stu" => array('item 7'),
        "vwx" => array('item 8'),
    );

    After this is send by Jquery UI:
    neworder:abc[]=1&def[]=6&ghi[]=2&jkl[]=4&mno[]=0&pqr[]=3&stu[]=7&vwx[]=5

    I've tried this:
        $filename = 'config.php';

        $lines = file( $filename , FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES );
        $linenumber = 2;
        foreach( $_POST['neworder'] AS $name => $val){
            $phost = $val[0];

            $lines[$linenumber] = ' "'.$name.'" => array(\'' . $phost . '\'),';
            $linenumber++;
        }

        file_put_contents( $filename , implode( "\n", $lines ) );

    But the '$val' is not send with Jquery only the order.

    */  
}
?>

Answer 1

You are going to want to use usort with a closure (available in php 5.3+) to get the keys in the order that you need them in.

$newOrder = $_POST["neworder"];
$config_keys = array_keys($config);
usort($config_keys, function($a, $b) use($newOrder) {
      return array_search($a, $newOrder) - array_search($b, $newOrder);
});

Then you can change rewrite $config into the new order

$newConfig = array();

foreach($config_keys as $key){
    $newConfig[$key] = $config[$key];
}
$config = $newConfig;
unset($newConfig);

From here you can persist $config in whatever method makes the most sense for your use case. I would advise against using it to create a php file though, a better approach may be to use

file_put_contents($cacheFile, serialize($config));

then to retrieve

$config = unserialize(file_get_contents($cacheFile));

Answer 2

There are so many threads that covers your problem

1. jQuery UI Sortable, then write order into a database
2. save jquery ui-sortable positions to DB
3. Optimal way to save order of jQueryUI sortable list with Meteor
4. http://dev.nirmalya.net/articles/javascript/saving-ordering-of-a-sortable-list-using-jquery-ui

I am sure you will find your answer there. All is about getting the order via

$('#mylist').sortable('toArray');

save it to database

and then get the order from database and show it properly with loop. Take a look at tutorials.

Answer 3

$(function() { $("ul.sortable").sortable({ connectWith: '.sortable', update: function(event, ui) { /* var position = $('.sortable').sortable('serialize', { key: 'menu', connected: true });*/ $('div').empty().html( $('.sortable').serial() ); } }); });