You're in luck, I use the exact thing in my CMS
When you want to store the order, just call the JavaScript method saveOrder(). It will make an AJAX POST request to saveorder.php, but of course you could always post it as a regular form.
<script type="text/javascript">
function saveOrder() {
var articleorder="";
$("#sortable li").each(function(i) {
if (articleorder=='')
articleorder = $(this).attr('data-article-id');
else
articleorder += "," + $(this).attr('data-article-id');
});
//articleorder now contains a comma separated list of the ID's of the articles in the correct order.
$.post('/saveorder.php', { order: articleorder })
.success(function(data) {
alert('saved');
})
.error(function(data) {
alert('Error: ' + data);
});
}
</script>
<ul id="sortable">
<?php
//my way to get all the articles, but you should of course use your own method.
$articles = Page::Articles();
foreach($articles as $article) {
?>
<li data-article-id='<?=$article->Id()?>'><?=$article->Title()?></li>
<?
}
?>
</ul>
<input type='button' value='Save order' onclick='saveOrder();'/>
In saveorder.php; Keep in mind I removed all verification and checking.
<?php
$orderlist = explode(',', $_POST['order']);
foreach ($orderlist as $k=>$order) {
echo 'Id for position ' . $k . ' = ' . $order . '<br>';
}
?>