Develop Reference

Save all edit on a form with button click

I have a form with multiple inputs, checkboxes, textarea, etc. On button click I want to execute a save values for any element that may have changed.
Due to my user base I can't always guarantee that they will press ENTER or TAB. So the button will be labeled SAVE CHANGES.
The problem is that without leaving an input element or pressing ENTER the new value is not actually written into the input, and therefore the SAVE BUTTON does not now the input value has changed.
So. How to implement code that scrubs all elements for any value changes. Something that forces all inputs to be updated with new values.
Remember that the user will edit a value and immediately select SAVE button without an ENTER or exit from the element.

You can execute your script that saves every event that occurs in the input as follows
Jquery
$("input").change(function(){
alert("The text has been changed.");
});
Javascript
object.addEventListener("change", myScript);
You could also review the documentation for keyup events so that it is saved every time the user changes the value or when the user presses a key. It could be useful in some cases.

My solution was to load all the records data retrieved into an array. Then, before exit collect all the current values on the form in another array.
When the user selects another record do a diff on the arrays and voila we have the pairs that need saving. I left the form on change as well for when the user edits a value and presses ENTER.
This way we hope to catch any changes. The new function called is also called on the Windows.beforeunload.

Add collection field to a form, that can render multiple 'prototypes'

I have my code setup like in this example: http://symfony.com/doc/current/cookbook/form/form_collections.html
The only thing that differs, is that I add tag fields through the change event of a select box (which holds a few tag types) instead of clicking the 'add tag' link.
What I like to add, is the option to add different form fields, according to the tag-type that is selected. (that is why I'm working with the change event instead of the add-tag link)
For example:
If I select tag-type 'simple', one form field should be rendered, being 'fieldName'
If I select tag-type 'advanced', two form fields should be rendered, being 'fieldName1' and 'fieldName2'
How can I do this? Should I define multiple prototypes? Or is there a more clever way?

I solved it like this:
When I change the value of the select box, an ajax call is made of type "post".
That call executes an action in my controller. The action will build that same form again.
A PRE_SET_DATA event listener will take care of adding a form-field to the main form through a form-modifier function (based on the chosen value in the select box).
Last but not least: the POST_SUBMIT event listener that calls that same form-modifier function to avoid the "form can not contain any extra fields" error.

Saving form values dependant upon onclick/onchange functions

I have a form that saves user entered values on submit with php.
Some of the fields are in div's that are display:hidden until an onclick or onchange function changes that div to show.
How can I show only the divs containing fields with saved values after the form has been submitted? I have saved the values in the always visible fields but cannot trigger their functions.
I am using very little jquery because I am new to the syntax and would prefer to implement solutions I can understand and adapt. Simple jquery is acceptable if it is a better/quicker/easier solution.
Thanks
Code Example:
<input type="radio" id="customer" name="jobtype" value="customer" onclick="getJobType()" autofocus>Customer
<input type="radio" id="store" name="jobtype" value="store" onclick="getJobType()">Store
<span id="customerjobs" style="display:none">
<select id="customer" name="customer" onchange="createJobsList(this.value)">
*various options*
</select>
<span id="jobslist"><br></span>
</span>
The first span (id=customerjobs) is initially hidden. Upon selection from the radio's, all but the corresponding span is set to display:none and the selected is set to display:block. On submit, the selected radio is saved, but the onclick isn't called to show the span.
The second span (id=jobslist) content is populated by innerHTML using the results of an ajax call to PHP when a selection is made. On submit, the selected option is saved, but the onchange isn't called to fill the span.
So I need to trigger the onclick of a saved radio value to show my content and trigger the onchange of a saved select to populate additional content.
Note: I used onblur with javascript to set the focus initially so any action would trigger the content but it caused an unnecessary pause in filling the form that I didn't want.
Page loads with only a radio selection.
User clicks radio button.
Onclick function changes style of span id=customerjobs to display:block.
The select input inside the span is now visible. The user selects an option.
Onchange function makes an ajax call to request information from the server which is placed in span id=jobslist.
User submits form to same page.
Form saves entered values so they are still selected when page reloads.
Onclick and onchange functions are not triggered by PHP saved values so steps 3 and 5 never occur. Page is left with only the radio buttons unless it is clicked again.
Well, I have a jsfiddle to illustrate my problem using default selections because I cannot use PHP to save entered values.
Imagine the form has just been submitted and the values saved are the checked radio button(customer) and the selection from the drop down(1) which adds the word "customer".
Ideally, the entire form would still be visible (The selected radio, the selected option and the content added to the last span "customer").
Instead, only the selected radio is visible unless it is clicked again to unhide the select drop down. The drop down retains its' value as well, but the content in the last span will only appear onchange.
http://jsfiddle.net/L5H2u/31/
Try it out and advance thanks for any suggestions.

Can you hook a function to onload that checks the radio buttons and simulates the click by calling getJobtype()? That will get the initial case where the radio button is already the way the user wants it. Further clicks will work as you planned.
Edited to add: If I understand you right, all is well the first time the page is loaded because the user has to click something and that runs your getJobType() function. However, when the page is reloaded, the correct radio button is already checked, the user doesn't change anything, and your function doesn't run. If that's correct, running getJobType() from onload should fix it.
You may need something like <input type="hidden" id="firstrun" value="true"> The PHP would set that to false on subsequent loads of the page, and the onload function would only make things happen if "firstrun" was false. Edit: You don't need this because getJobType() has no default action; keep reading.
Edited still more: You have checked="checked' on the Customer radio button, so if the user is a customer, even the initial run doesn't reveal the hidden material.
Remove checked="checked" when the page is initially loaded so that on the initial presentation, neither button is checked.* Then add window.onload=getJobType; to the end of your JavaScript.
On the initial load, getJobType() will do nothing since it checks both buttons and has no default action. When a button is clicked, getJobType() will run and act based on the button that was clicked.
When the page is loaded a subsequent time, one of the buttons will be checked and when onload runs getJobType() it will perform the corresponding action.
The radio buttons, SELECT values, and any other form elements that are preserved and "reflected" by the server-side PHP will be correct when the form is loaded the second (and subsequent) times. Where you need an onload JavaScript function is when one of those values also changes something else, such as making a hidden DIV visible. If there are functions other than getJobType() that manipulate the DOM, it will likely be cleaner to write an init function that sets up the DOM based on the values of the form elements as preserved by the PHP process.
* I normally advocate having some button checked by default so that the user can always get back to the initial state. This case seems to be an exception.

Do something when input field gets updated through jquery

I have input field
<input type="text" name="vehicle_make[]" id="make1"/>
and i have help dropdown that updates this field if user choose to do so. I do it trough standard jquery code
$("#make1").val("value");
Problem is, since i use validate plugin to validate this field, if user click on validate before entering anything in that box, he will get notice that he needs to fill it, but then if he fills it trough dropdown, validate plugin will not detect it until user click on submit again.
I know i could call submit in function in which i process dropdown, but i think that it is not right solution, since i would need to check if validation is already done before doing that (since if it is not, it would start validation before i want it to start).
I also need to tie some other things to that field also, so i would like to know is there is a way in which i could write function so it always check if field is filled, even if user did not fill it directly.
Sorry if i didn't explain everything right, this is my first message here.

Try this
$("#make1").change(function(){
//do something there
});

I have found solution. First, i created js variable form_submitted, and added onclick event to submit button, to change value of variable form_submitted to yes. Then, i created function:
function update_validation(){
if(form_submitted == 'yes'){
$("#my_form").valid();
};
};
that i call when user do something that is not detected regularly with validate plugin. This function manually starts validation again, but only if it has been started before by clicking on submit.

Bound cfselects' onClick causing issue

I have a cfselect which is working fine. I have an onclick event to refresh the binding to the cfselect because the query contents keep changing quite frequently and I want the users to have the updated list.Now i want to add "Select any Bus" as the first option which I am not able to do.
I tried adding a row to the query result ahead of it being returned from my cfc. But I am not able to select any other value other than 'Select any Bus'.
My cfselect code is:
<cfinvoke component="getCalculatorData" method="getAllBus" argumentcollection="#houseArgs#" returnvariable="qry_busList">
<cfform style="align:centre" id="frm_drpDwnBus" name="frm_drpDwnBus">
<cfinput name="hdnrr" value="#rrSbstring#" type="hidden">
<cfselect name="dpDwnBs" bindOnLoad="true"
bind="cfc:getCalculatorData.getAllBus(hdnrr.value)"
value="busType_id_pk"
display="busType_name" >
onclick="javascript:refresh(hdnrr.value)"
<option value="0" on>Select a Bus</option>
</cfselect>
</cfform>
My cfc:
SELECT busType_id_pk
,busType_name FROM tbl_bustype
WHERE busType_railroad_letter=
javascript:
function refresh(s)
{
ColdFusion.Bind.assignValue('dpDwnBs','value', dataCalcu.getAllBus(s))
}
As soon as i remove the onclick event all works fine. Please help me out here.

Having misread the question originally, let's take another swing.
A standing onclick bind event on a select box will never work. To use a select box the way most people do, you click it twice: once to drop it down, and once to select your item. However, on the first click you reset the item. Even if the box stays open (I suspect this might be browser dependent, but hanven't really tested), the second click will also reset it, meaning that you'll lose your selection, as the selected item is destroyed and recreated as a new DOM node.
I can think of three solutions.
First, you can add a refresh button to the form, and refresh the values in the select box then.
Second, you can use jQuery or similar to bind the event, and then onclick refresh the option list and then remove the onclick event binding. This means that the user can only refresh the options once, but (hopefully) that should be enough. If the page uis used multiple times (via AJAX for example) you can rebind the onclick refresh event on submission.
Finally, display the form item as an uneditable text field (onfocus="blur();" IIRC). Add a button, or change the focus event to launch a modal window that pulls the options from your CFC via AJAX or similar and displays them, so that anytime they choose to edit this item, they get a new set of choices.
All of these have the disadvantage of not preserving previous selections, as the bind refresh destroys all the option odes and builds a new option list.