Initializing 'jQuery UI Sortable List' in pre-defined order

I don't think the sortable plugin comes with an option to set the initial order of the elements. I think it expects the elements to be initially rendered in the correct order (which makes sense in my opinion - why don't you do that ?)

Anyway, here's a piece of code that will sort the elements prior to initializing the sortable plugin:

var arrValuesForOrder = ["3", "1", "4", "2"];

var $ul = $("#myUnorderedList"),
    $items = $("#myUnorderedList").children();

// loop backwards so you can just prepend elements in the list
// instead of trying to place them at a specific position
for (var i = arrValuesForOrder[arrValuesForOrder.length - 1]; i >= 0; i--) {
    // index is zero-based to you have to remove one from the values in your array
    $ul.prepend( $items.get(arrValuesForOrder[i] - 1));
}

$("#myUnorderedList").sortable({
    axis: 'y',
    handle: '.handle',
    update: function() {
        var order = $('#myUnorderedList').sortable('serialize');
        alert(order);
    }
});

DEMO