HTML DragSort

html-dragsort is a lightweight, zero-dependency library for reordering HTML elements using Pointer Events. It supports vertical, horizontal, and grid layouts, with options for drag handles and lifecycle events (dragStart, sort, dragEnd).

Getting Started

Install using package manager:

npm install html-dragsort

or

yard add html-dragsort

CDN

• UMD

  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/html-dragsort@1/dist/html-dragsort.umd.min.js"></script>

• IIFE

  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/html-dragsort@1/dist/html-dragsort.iife.min.js"></script>

• ES Module

<script type="module">
    import HTMLDragSort from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/html-dragsort@1/dist/html-dragsort.esm.min.js";
</script>

Usage

html-dragsort makes any container sortable by dragging its children. Just pass a parent element (or a selector) to the constructor. By default, all direct children become draggable, but you can customize which ones are draggable using options like handle or a draggable class filter.

const sorter = new HTMLDragSort('#container', { /* ...options */ });

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
draggable	string	""	A CSS selector that defines which children of the container can be dragged.
handle	string	""	A CSS selector for a "drag handle" inside each draggable item.
axis	"x"|"y"|"xy"	"y"	Restricts the drag movement to a specific axis, for xy items can be dragged freely in both directions.
opacity	number	0	Sets the CSS opacity of the placeholder element while dragging. The value should be between 0 (fully transparent) and 1 (fully opaque).
disabled	boolean	false	Disables drag-and-sort behavior when set to true.

Events

html-dragsort dispatches events during the drag-and-sort lifecycle. You can listen for them using .on(event, callback) Each event handler receives a SortEvent object with details like the item being dragged, placeholder, from/to indexes, and the container list.

sorter.on("sort", (evt) => {
  // Event type
  evt.type
  // Temporary element that occupies the position of the dragged item while sorting.
  evt.placeholder
  // Dragged element
  evt.dragged
  // The target is the sortable element that the dragged item is currently hovering over during a drag operation.
  evt.target
  // The original index of the dragged item before sorting began.
  evt.from
  // The new index of the dragged item after it has been reordered. (-1 if no reordering happened yet).
  evt.to
  // The sortable container element passed to HTMLDragSort.
  evt.list
});

Event	Argument	Description
dragStart	SortEvent	Triggered as soon as the user starts dragging an item.
sort	SortEvent	Fires whenever the dragged item is reordered within the container.
dragEnd	SortEvent	Fires when the dragged item is dropped (the drag operation finishes).

Methods

• setOptions(options: DragSortOptions) — Updates the configuration of the existing HTMLDragSort instance.
• on(type: EventType, handler: EventHandler) — Attaches an event handler.
• off(type?: EventType, handler?: EventHandler) — Detaches event handlers; omit handler to remove all handlers for an event, omit event type to remove all handlers entirely.
• destroy() — Removes event listeners attached to the container and cleans up the HTMLDragSort instance.