Rely on javascript to execute PHP script or manipulate hidden form elements and rely on PHP?

Question

I wrote a JavaScript script that swaps two selected img tag src values.

The point is to let the user rearrange a list of images.

For sending the new order to a PHP script, I have two ideas:

1. Have a button execute a JavaScript function that gathers the new order of images into an array of URLs. Then, rely on JavaScript to send the data to a PHP script?

2. Have the initial JavaScript rearrange hidden input tag value attributes which would contain data such as a URL and order number. Then, rely on a submit input button to execute a POST request without JavaScript?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Why not consider using Jquery's UI Draggable/Sortable? It takes some of the brain damage out of the code and gives the user an intuitive way to interface with the reordering process:

http://jqueryui.com/demos/draggable/#sortable

You could then use the callbacks to update via Ajax, or set variables that could be dumped to PHP on submit.