How to check if a jQuery UI plugin is attached to an element?

Question

How can I check to see if a jQuery UI plugin is attached to an element? For example, if I load up the .sortable widget, how can its presence be determined?

The purpo

Answer 1

Since jQuery UI 1.8, special selectors are being added to Sizzle for each widget. These are in the form of :ui-widgetname.

To check for the presence of a sortable widget on an element, you can therefore use:

if(element.is(':ui-sortable')) {
    element.sortable('destroy');
}