dom-sort.js

/**
 * A custom sort method to sort DOM nodes
 *
 * @param wrap {HTMLElement} direct parent of sortable elements
 * @param filter {Function} A pre-filter to gather the comparable attributes into an array (because DOM comparison is costly)
 * @param map {Array} Desired order of elements by their IDs
 */
function sortModules(wrap, filter, map) {
    var l = wrap.children.length,
        arr = [],
        par = wrap.parentNode,
        ref = wrap.nextSibling;

    for (var i = 0; i < l; ++i) {
        arr[i] = [filter(wrap.children[i], map), wrap.children[i]];
    }

    arr.sort(function(a, b) {
        return a[0] - b[0];
    });

    par.removeChild(wrap);

    for (var j = 0; j < l; ++j) {
        wrap.appendChild(arr[j][1]);
    }

    par.insertBefore(wrap, ref);
}

// Usage
sortMap = ['i-come-first', 'second', 'i-am-third', 'random-fourth-id'];
sortModules(
  document.getElementById('sortables'),
  function(item, map) {map.indexOf(wrap.children[i].id},
  sortMap
);