Quick Tip: User Sortable Lists with Flexbox and jQuery

This article demonstrates how to create a basic jQuery plugin for sorting elements using flexbox and custom data attributes. The plugin, numericFlexboxSorting, offers simple ascending/descending sorting based on data-price or data-length attributes.

Key Points:

• Functionality: The plugin sorts list items (.boxes li by default) based on selected criteria (price or length, ascending or descending). This sorting is achieved by manipulating the flexbox order property.
• Accessibility Concerns: Crucially, this method alters visual order without changing the DOM order, creating an accessibility issue. Screen readers and keyboard navigation will not reflect the visually reordered list. More robust, accessible sorting libraries are recommended for production use.
• Customization: The target elements for sorting can be changed via the elToSort option.
• Limitations: The plugin is rudimentary and only handles numerical data attributes. It lacks error handling and advanced features found in dedicated sorting libraries like Isotope or MixItUp.

How the Plugin Works:

1. Initialization: The plugin is initialized by calling $(".b-select").numericFlexboxSorting(); (or with options to specify the elements to sort).
2. Event Handling: A change event listener on the select element triggers the sorting process.
3. Sorting Logic: The sortColumns function extracts data attribute values, sorts them (ascending or descending), and then applies the order property to each element based on the sorted values.

Accessibility Considerations: The use of order for sorting directly impacts accessibility. The visual order doesn't match the source order, breaking assistive technology's ability to accurately represent the list's structure.

Alternatives: Libraries like Isotope and MixItUp provide more sophisticated and accessible sorting and filtering capabilities.

Further Development: Potential improvements include adding random sorting, supporting different control types (buttons, etc.), and enhancing error handling.

Browser Support: The plugin relies on flexbox, which enjoys broad browser support.

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