JQuery UI Sortable

Question

Can someone please help me with this one:

When using UISortables where - and how do I put "serialize" into the JQuery function?

I have 4 columns class '.columm' and each wit a unique id - col1,col2,col3 & col4.

I can get the drag & drop bit to work I now need to put the "final" positions into a serialized array.

Here is my code:

$(".column").sortable({
        revert: true,
        scroll: true,
        appendTo: 'body',
        connectWith: '.column',
        delay:200,
        stop: function() {
        $(".column").each(function(){
        var test = $(this).attr('id');

        alert(test);

        //
            //var myArray = $(this).sortable("serialize");

            })
        },
        revertDuration:50000,
        scope:'scope',
        opacity: 0.80,
    });

You will see alert test. I have done this to see if I can get the col id's into an alert and I can, but where do i put

.sortable( "serialize" , [options] )

and how do I do that for the 4 columns to create 1 single serialized array?

having done that how/where do you set the order when you next load the page? (OK yes, I do intent to "store" the serialized array)

Help please - thanks