In my post on the standards compliant HTML editor I mentioned a script I wrote before dealing with unobtrusive sortable tables. If you missed the prior post I’ll recap: Unobtrusive javascript is a really cool way of applying javascript to pages by using the DOM to attach events to objects. So, instead of hardcoding hooks all over the place, you use the DOM and element properties (such as ID or className) to attach javascript to the object.
This method of adding javascript to your document is great as far as maintenance goes becuase if the “hook” ever changes you only have to change it in your initialization method and not all over the place with your code. Secondly, if your lucky enough to work in a shop that has page designers, content authors, and then backend programmers the only people who EVER have to deal with the javascript in your site are the programmers. It is just one more way to separate presentation and content.
Anyway, instead of repeating myself I’m going to direct you to my other blog, where I initially posted about the sortable table script. Hopefully it helps you and perhaps, even better, inspires you to start using unobtrusive javascript. As always when I dicuss this particular script I want to give credit where it is due: Stuart Landridge (kyrogenix.org), Scott Andrew (scottandrew.com), and Mike Hall (brainjar.com) all provided prior work in this area that led to my solution. If it weren’t for their efforts and the commentary of Stuart advocating unobtrusive javascript I may never have heard of, or tried to implement, this idea.