Sortable Web Parts for SharePoint

While SharePoint 2013 officially supports non-Internet Explorer browsers, some of their legacy features still are using ActiveX. For non-Internet Explorer users, this means that these features are not yet available. One particular feature that is unavailable is sorting (drag and drop) web parts while editing a page.

How It Works

Adding sortable web parts requires re-implementing the dragdrop ActiveX control which SharePoint uses for sorting web parts. However, rather than just implementing the one function in JavaScript, it is easier to replace the entire piece of functionality using jQuery UI's Sortable plugin.

Getting Started

This functionality can be adding to your SharePoint 2013 solution in multiple ways: by adding the functionality to your browser via a bookmarklet, or by adding the script into your solution.

Using it as a bookmarklet

1. Create a bookmark in your browser with the name Sortable Web Parts and the following as the URL:

    javascript:(function(){;function e(){r++,o===r&&t()}function t(){!function(e,t,o,r){"use strict";var i,n={},a={placeholder:".ui-sortable-placeholder",webpart:".ms-webpartzone-cell",zone:".ms-SPZone"},p="MSOZone_EmptyZoneCell",s=a.placeholder+" + "+a.webpart+", "+a.placeholder+" + #"+p;n.prototypeSetup=function(){HTMLDivElement.prototype.swapNode=function(e){if(null===e)return!1;var t=this.parentNode.insertBefore(o.createTextNode(""),this);return e.parentNode.insertBefore(this,e),t.parentNode.insertBefore(e,t),t.parentNode.removeChild(t),this},HTMLDivElement.prototype.removeNode=function(){this.parentNode.removeChild(this)}},n.setup=function(){n.prototypeSetup(),i={body:e("body"),webparts:e(a.webpart),webpartZone:e(a.zone)},i.webpartZone.sortable({connectWith:a.zone,handle:"span.js-webpart-titleCell",items:a.webpart}),i.body.on("mouseup",a.webpart,function(){var o,r=e(a.placeholder)[0];r&&(o=r.previousElementSibling,o&&o.id===p&&r.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o));var i=e(s)[0];i&&(t.MSOLayout_currentDragMode="move",t.MSOLayout_iBar.setAttribute("goodDrop",!0),t.MSOLayout_oDropLocation=i,t.MSOLayout_zoneDragOver=e(i).parents(".ms-SPZone")[0],t.MSOLayout_MoveWebPart(this,i)),this.setAttribute("style","")})},n.isEditMode=function(){var t,o,r;return o="1"===e("#MSOLayout_InDesignMode").val(),r="Edit"===e("#_wikiPageMode").val(),t=o||r},n.init=function(){HTMLDivElement.prototype.dragDrop===r&&n.isEditMode()&&e().sortable&&n.setup()},e(n.init)}(jQuery,window,document)}var o=0,r=0;o+=2;for(var i=["https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js","https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.min.js"],n=["jquery-min","jquery-ui-min"],a=0;a<i.length;a++){var p=i[a],s=document.createElement("script");s.src=p,s.id=n[a],s.type="text/javascript",s.onload=e,document.body.appendChild(s)}t();;})()
   

2. On a SharePoint 2013 page, edit the page.

3. Click on the Sortable Web Parts bookmark in your bookmark bar.

4. Try sorting web parts to verify that the script is working.

Installing it against your on-premise SharePoint 2013 or Office 365 solution

You will need the following developer tools:

• Visual Studio Premium 2012
• Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012

Using the solution on-premise

1. Get the latest stable version of the included solution, found under: /bin/vs/SP.SortableWebParts.zip, and open it in Visual Stuido.
2. Click on the project SP.SortableWebParts in the Solution Explorer, and under the Properties view, enter your site collection URL in the Site URL field.
3. Right click on the project SP.SortableWebParts and click deploy.
4. If you published the project in the previous step, you will need to manually activate a site collection feature.
   • Go to your site collection root and click on Site Settings.
   • Click on Site Collection Features.
   • Find the SP.SortableWebParts Site feature, and click Activate.
5. Edit a page on your SharePoint 2013 site and try sorting web parts to verify that the script is working.

Using the solution for Office 365

1. Get the latest stable version of the included solution, found under: /bin/vs/SP.SortableWebParts.zip, and open it in Visual Stuido.
2. Right click on the project SP.SortableWebParts, click Publish, and sign-in if needed.
3. After publishing, go to the Solution Gallery and find the solution SP.SortableWebParts.
4. Click on the dropdown, then click Activate. Once the modal dialog appears, click Activate in the ribbon.
5. Edit a page on your SharePoint 2013 site and try sorting web parts to verify that the script is working.

Tip

You may already include jQuery and/or jQuery UI in your solution. If you do, remove the references to them in the solution to save bandwidth and extra HTTP requests.

Support

If you have a bug, or a feature request, please post in the issue tracker.

Otherwise, you can contact the author over Twitter at @cwlparsons.

Build Instructions

1. Install NodeJS.

2. Install Grunt CLI globally.

    npm install grunt-cli -g
   

3. Run npm install from command line at root project folder. This will read the package.json file and pull in all required node modules and put into a directory called node_modules. This directory is generated so it can be deleted and should not be checked into source control. If deleted running npm install will re-create it.

4. Use grunt to build:

   • grunt plugin will minify the source and copy the vendor files.
   • grunt bookmark will create the bookmarklet by using grunt-bookmarklet-thingy and minifying the source.
   • grunt vs will create a Visual Studio project to deploy to SharePoint.
   • grunt will build all three.

License

Copyright (c) 2015 Habanero Consulting Group

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.