Develop Reference

Changing inner text value of tab through javascript

I'm learning Javascript right now, and attempting to change the text title of a particular tab. It's actually part of a larger Shiny dashboard project, but I want to add some custom functionality to a few tabs. Below are the tabs in question:
Simple enough. I first access my tabs in my Javascript file:
var tabScrub2 = $(document).find('[data-value="scrubTab2"]');
console.log(tabScrub2);
When I use Firefox's developer console, I see that the tab is an object:
Moreover, it looks like I need to change the innerText property of 0, whatever this is, since that corresponds to the title of my tab (the innerText of 1 corresponds to the text inside scrubTab2). However, I'm not familiar with the actual object type being returned here:
Simply put, how the heck do I access and manipulate properties from this? And am I actually accessing an array? When I type in
var scrub2 = tabScrub2["1"];
console.log(scrub2);
I get an HTML element. I'm seen the a element in CSS and jQuery, but am not super familiar with how to manipulate its properties programmatically? How do I go about accessing and manipulating the innerText properties of this via Javascript? For instance, how would I hide scrubTab2, or change its title to something else?

The first object you're seeing is jQuery's wrapper around the real DOM elements. It's not an actual array, but it does contain all of the elements that matched your query under zero-indexed properties (e.g. "0" and "1") which allows you to access to them via an array-like API (e.g. tabScrub[1]).
Your method of grabbing a node using tabScrub2["1"] is correct (see this question in the jQuery FAQ). It's more likely to see that done with a numeric key though (i.e. tabScrub[1]) because that matches the way you would access an element in a normal array.
As far as manipulating properties of the DOM node, the DOM's API is notoriously inconsistent and quirky (hence the need for things like jQuery in the first place). However, for your use case you can just assign a string to the innerText property directly (e.g. tagScrub2[1].innerText = "Tab title"). MDN is a great resource if you're looking for reference material on other parts of the DOM.
A side note: if you're looking for a specific element you should use a query that will only match that element. It's generally a bad sign if you're grabbing extra elements and then accessing the element you want at a key other than 0. If you're doing this then your code depends on other (potentially unrelated) nodes in the DOM existing before your node, and if/when you change those nodes your original code will break.

Just use jQuery eq method to get the relevant object index from the array.
For an example
//Query and get first element.
var tabScrub2 = $(document).find('[data-value="scrubTab2"]:eq(0)');
//Hide
tabScrub2.hide();
//Change title
tabScrub2.attr("title", "New Title Text");
Lean more about jQuery eq here.
https://api.jquery.com/eq/
Since you use jquery selectors tabScrub2[0] returns the native DOM element instead of another jQuery object. Therefore the hide function won't work in that object since the native DOM element doesn't implement such type of functionality for an element. That's why you have to use jQuery pseudo selector as above. Because hide will only work with a jQuery object.

live function with out arguments in jQuery

I wanna select some item by jQuery which has been added after loading page,so I wanna use live() function.I used it before for clicking like following code:
$("selector").live('click')
but now when I wanna use it in another function.
but It will not work with out argument,like it live()
for e.g followin code will alert test (work)
var pos_eq=Math.abs($('.myList').css("left").replace("px","")/$('.myList').children('li').eq(0).css('width').replace("px","")) + 1;
alert("test");
but this will not.
var pos_eq=Math.abs($('.myList').live().css("left").replace("px","")/$('.myList').live().children('li').eq(0).css('width').replace("px","")) + 1;
alert("test");
how can I solve it?

You want a function, not a variable. It looks like you are trying to keep pos_eq up to date after elements have been added to the page. Having a variable auto-update when the DOM changes in the way you are trying to do is not possible with JavaScript. What you can do is use a function instead of a variable. This way whenever the value is accessed you are getting the latest value because it is computed on demand:
function pos_eq() {
var list = $('.myList');
var left = parseInt(list.css("left"));
var width = parseInt(list.children('li').eq(0).css('width'));
return Math.abs(left / width) + 1;
}
I broke your code up into multiple statements to make it more readable. You would use this function the same as you used the variable, but instead add parens to the end to invoke the function:
alert(pos_eq);
alert(pos_eq());

To get a set of objects at the time you need them, just do $("selector"). That will do a query at that time and get the set of objects. There is no need to use .live() in order to query objects on the page. It does not matter whether the objects were part of the original page or were added dynamically later. When you do $("selector"), it will search the contents of the current page and get you the objects that are currently in the page that match the selector.
There is no way to do a live selector query and save it and have it automatically update in jQuery or any other library I know of. The way you solve that issue with a dynamic page is that you just do a new query when you need current results.

The description of live() is: Attach a handler to the event for all elements which match the current selector, now and in the future. It does not give you a live node list despite its name. jQuery does not have any method that returns a live node list(such as those returned by getElementsByTagName etc.) as far as I know.

JavaScript watch event not working on DOM element objects?

I know I can use watch to bind a callback that will be triggered when object property changes. And this does work on generic objects like:
{'a':1, 'b':'7'}
So, I thought that I can simply do this to bind a callback that will trigger when input field value changes:
var inputDomElement = document.getElementById('someInputElement');
inputDomElement.watch('value',function (id, oldval, newval) {
alert(oldval);
alert(newval);
});
But this doesn't work. Simply doesn't trigger. No alert boxes. I've tried it in Firefox 5 and Google Chrome (latest).
Is this not how watch works? Is watch simply doesn't work on DOM elements? I thought that they're simply objects - aren't they?
UPDATE 1:
Here's MDN info about what watch is:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/watch
UPDATE 2:
I cannot use change event. because change only triggers when text element catches blur. Meaning that it'll only trigger when user switches from this textfield to another one. It's not in any way dynamic for when for example checking if this username or email address already taken which I'd like to happen on each distinct change.

The DOM is written in C/C++ where the concept of getting and setting a Javascript variable doesn't exist as you or I would often imagine it. You probably imagined the code to be implemented similar to what is below. Unfortunately Object.watch is never initiated because the DOM isn't constantly updating the Javascipt value, but Javascript is requesting an update from the DOM.
input.onuserchangevalue = function(){
input.value = 'new user input'
}
Thinking how the DOM commonly works, each element has dozens of potential properties.
innerHTML,value,style.cssText,name,id,style.background,style.backgroundColor
Imagine if the DOM underlining code had to constantly update every DOM elements Javascript properties %) Memory and CPU cycles would go through the roof having to ensure the properties matched the display value. The DOM's internals would also have to check if the Javascript value has potentially changed.
Reality - Red Pill
Basically the DOM isn't giving info to javascript, but Javascript is requesting the info from the DOM. This is a decent Javascript interpretation of what is going on underneath.
Object.defineProperty(input, "value", {
get : function(){ /* get C/C++ DOM value */ },
set : function(){ /* change C/C++ DOM value */ }
});
This explains why the DOM is often the bottleneck for Javascript. Javascript has to request/set the internal DOM values every time you interface with the DOM.

You need to use jQuery Objects, not DOM Objects. There is a difference.
document.getElementById("someID") //returns DOM Object
$('#someId') //returns jQuery Object
Note: you could doe something strange like this:
$(document.getElementById("someID")) //returns a jQuery Object
this would work
$('#someInputElement').watch('value',function (id, oldval, newval) {
alert(oldval);
alert(newval);
});

if you want to track changes on a text element, why not just use the .change() method?
http://jsfiddle.net/rkw79/qTTsH/
$('input').change(function(e) {
$('div').html('old value: ' + e.target.defaultValue + '<br/>'
+ 'new value: ' + e.target.value);
})
For instant change, use .keyup(): http://jsfiddle.net/rkw79/qTTsH/1/

Using $.data() in jQuery to store flag on element

I am authoring a simple jQuery plugin that turns an input tag into a time-formatted element (on blur it will change 245p into 2:45 pm).
Since I do not want to apply the time format events to the same element twice, I need a way to detect that the specific element in the list provided has not already had the format applied.
This is the relevant part of the code:
var methods = {
init : function(sel) {
var $this = $(sel);
return $this.each(function(){
var data = $(this).data('time_formatted');
if (data) {
return;
} else {
$(this).data('time_formatted', true);
I have heard that using $(sel).data() in a plugin is not a good idea; instead, use $.data(). I don't know why, that's just what I've heard; honestly, I don't know what the difference is.
So my question is, is this the way to accomplish checking if a specific element has had the time formatter applied to it in a plugin?
If you care to see the plugin in it's current development state, see http://jsfiddle.net/userdude/xhXCR/.
Thanks!
Jared

Where have you heard that using .data() is not good? jQuery's plugin autoring page says:
Often times in plugin development, you may need to maintain state or check if your plugin has already been initialized on a given element. Using jQuery's data method is a great way to keep track of variables on a per element basis. However, rather than keeping track of a bunch of separate data calls with different names, it's best to use a single object literal to house all of your variables, and access that object by a single data namespace.
So it should be perfectly fine.

Rendering suggested values from an ext Combobox to an element in the DOM

I have an ext combobox which uses a store to suggest values to a user as they type.
An example of which can be found here: combobox example
Is there a way of making it so the suggested text list is rendered to an element in the DOM. Please note I do not mean the "applyTo" config option, as this would render the whole control, including the textbox to the DOM element.

You can use plugin for this, since you can call or even override private methods from within the plugin:
var suggested_text_plugin = {
init: function(o) {
o.onTypeAhead = function() {
// Original code from the sources goes here:
if(this.store.getCount() > 0){
var r = this.store.getAt(0);
var newValue = r.data[this.displayField];
var len = newValue.length;
var selStart = this.getRawValue().length;
if(selStart != len){
this.setRawValue(newValue);
this.selectText(selStart, newValue.length);
}
}
// Your code to display newValue in DOM
......myDom.getEl().update(newValue);
};
}
};
// in combobox code:
var cb = new Ext.form.ComboBox({
....
plugins: suggested_text_plugin,
....
});
I think it's even possible to create a whole chain of methods, calling original method before or after yours, but I haven't tried this yet.
Also, please don't push me hard for using non-standard plugin definition and invocation methodics (undocumented). It's just my way of seeing things.
EDIT:
I think the method chain could be implemented something like that (untested):
....
o.origTypeAhead = new Function(this.onTypeAhead.toSource());
// or just
o.origTypeAhead = this.onTypeAhead;
....
o.onTypeAhead = function() {
// Call original
this.origTypeAhead();
// Display value into your DOM element
...myDom....
};

#qui
Another thing to consider is that initList is not part of the API. That method could disappear or the behavior could change significantly in future releases of Ext. If you never plan on upgrading, then you don't need to worry.

So clarify, you want the selected text to render somewhere besides directly below the text input. Correct?
ComboBox is just a composite of Ext.DataView, a text input, and an optional trigger button. There isn't an official option for what you want and hacking it to make it do what you want would be really painful. So, the easiest course of action (other than finding and using some other library with a component that does exactly what you want) is to build your own with the components above:
Create a text box. You can use an Ext.form.TextField if you want, and observe the keyup event.
Create a DataView bound to your store, rendering to whatever DOM element you want. Depending on what you want, listen to the 'selectionchange' event and take whatever action you need to in response to the selection. e.g., setValue on an Ext.form.Hidden (or plain HTML input type="hidden" element).
In your keyup event listener, call the store's filter method (see doc), passing the field name and the value from the text field. e.g., store.filter('name',new RegEx(value+'.*'))
It's a little more work, but it's a lot shorter than writing your own component from scratch or hacking the ComboBox to behave like you want.

#Thevs
I think you were on the right track.
What I did was override the initList method of Combobox.
Ext.override(Ext.form.ComboBox, {
initList : function(){
If you look at the code you can see the bit where it renders the list of suggestions to a dataview. So just set the apply to the dom element you want:
this.view = new Ext.DataView({
//applyTo: this.innerList,
applyTo: "contentbox",

#qui
Ok. I thought you want an extra DOM field (in addition to existing combo field).
But your solution would override a method in the ComboBox class, isn't it? That would lead to all your combo-boxes would render to the same DOM. Using a plugin would override only one particular instance.