Dynamically rename div id?

I've got a sortable list that you can add new elements to dynamically, using the prototype helpers (http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ ActionView/Helpers/PrototypeHelper/JavaScriptGenerator/ GeneratorMethods.html)

I want to be able to remove a selected item from the list dynamically -- presumably, each item in the list would have a link_to_remote that would pop a confirmation dialog, then remove the selected row from the list. When this happens, though, I will need to renumber all the other div id's in my list to keep the list in good, numerical order.

Any idea on how to rename a div id in this manner? I don't want to replace the div outright, if possible, as that seems really messy.

I’ve got a sortable list that you can add new elements to dynamically,

using the prototype helpers ([http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/

ActionView/Helpers/PrototypeHelper/JavaScriptGenerator/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ ActionView/Helpers/PrototypeHelper/JavaScriptGenerator/)

GeneratorMethods.html)

I want to be able to remove a selected item from the list dynamically

– presumably, each item in the list would have a link_to_remote that

would pop a confirmation dialog, then remove the selected row from the

list. When this happens, though, I will need to renumber all the

other div id’s in my list to keep the list in good, numerical order.

Why?

Any idea on how to rename a div id in this manner? I don’t want to

replace the div outright, if possible, as that seems really messy.

Just an idea, but maybe you can leave the div’s as is — when you remove a div then it just disappears, and the visible list order is still preserved. Then if the user does re-order the list at the ui, then you send ajax on that event.

I've got a sortable list that you can add new elements to dynamically, using the prototype helpers (http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ ActionView/Helpers/PrototypeHelper/JavaScriptGenerator/ GeneratorMethods.html)

I want to be able to remove a selected item from the list dynamically -- presumably, each item in the list would have a link_to_remote that would pop a confirmation dialog, then remove the selected row from the list. When this happens, though, I will need to renumber all the other div id's in my list to keep the list in good, numerical order.

No, you really really don't want to do this. Sortables use the actual ID of the related object to update the position column in the database for the appropriate records.

If you're using the sortable list helpers, you must have something like this in your view:

<li id="'id_<%= whatever.id %>">,</li>

And when you sort, the callback sends an array of these IDs back to the server in their current order.

You do want to have a separate callback to remove the object from the collection you're sorting, but that's outside the scope of your sortable callback.

Each time you update the position attribute in the database, you need to be doing that against a fresh lookup of your collection in your controller (so you won't try to sort a missing element)[1]. And when you do, these IDs that are sent from the page must be the actual IDs of the elements, not some arbitrary numerical order values, or else you can't update the correct elements with their new position value.

Walter

1. def sort      @categories = Category.all      @categories.each do |category|        category.position = params['sort_list'].index(category.id.to_s) + 1        category.save      end      render :nothing => true    end