Question

I am currently attempting to set up a set of chained selects using the Flexbox Jquery plugin (this is not specifically designed for chaining, but can be used for that).

I have the chaining working if I set everything explicitly, but I am trying to dry my code up and make it more understandable. As such, I have come up with the code below.

All boxes currently load initially, and make their queries. The problem I am having is that when I iterate through the menus (as below), I lose the onSelect functionality – it only fires for the last menu I loaded.

My understanding was that since I am using a different JQuery selector each time – $('#' + fbMenu.divId) – it would not matter that I then set the onSelect behavior for another menu, but evidently this is not the case. Am I somehow overwriting the binding each time I am loading a box?

Hopefully I don’t have to specify the onSelect functionality for each dropdown, as there could be a large number of them.

Many thanks for any assistance you can provide!

$(document).ready(function() {  

    // Create the variables for data objects  
    var vehicleMakeFb = new Object();
    var vehicleModelFb = new Object();
    var vehicleTrimFb = new Object();

    // Set up each menu with the divId, jsonUrl and the chlid menus that will be updated on select
    vehicleMakeFb.divId = 'vehicle_vehicleMake_input';
    vehicleMakeFb.jsonUrl = '/vehicles/getmakes';
    vehicleMakeFb.children = [vehicleModelFb];

    vehicleModelFb.divId = 'vehicle_vehicleModel_input';
    vehicleModelFb.jsonUrl = '/vehicles/getmodels';
    vehicleModelFb.children = [vehicleTrimFb];

    vehicleTrimFb.divId = 'vehicle_vehicleTrim_input';
    vehicleTrimFb.jsonUrl = '/vehicles/gettrims';
    vehicleTrimFb.children = [];

    // Create an array of all menu objects so that they can be iterated through
    var allMenus = [vehicleMakeFb,vehicleModelFb,vehicleTrimFb];

    // Create the parent menu
    for (var i = 0; i < allMenus.length; i++) {
        var fbMenu = allMenus[i];
        alert(fbMenu.divId);
        $('#' + fbMenu.divId).flexbox(fbMenu.jsonUrl + '.json', {  

            // Update the child menu(s), based on the selection of the first menu
            onSelect: function() {  

                    for (var i = 0; i < fbMenu.children.length; i++) {
                        var fbChild = fbMenu.children[i];
                        var hiddendiv = document.getElementById(fbMenu.divId + '_hidden');
                        var jsonurl1 = fbChild.jsonUrl + '/' + hiddendiv.getAttribute('value') + '.json';
                        alert(jsonurl1);
                        $('#' + fbChild.divId).flexbox(jsonurl1);   
                    }

            }

        });
    }

});

Answer 1

If you put all the information on the elements them selves i think you will have better results. Although I’ve been known to be wrong, I think the context of the select functions are getting mixed up.

instead of setting up each menu as an object try:

$(document).ready(function() {  

    var setupdiv = (function(divId, jsonUrl, children)
    {
        jQuery('#' + divId)
            .data("jsonurl", jsonUrl)
            .data("children", children.join(",#"));
    
        // Create the parent menu
        jQuery('#' + divId).flexbox(jsonUrl + '.json', 
        {  
            // Update the child menu(s), based on the selection of the first menu
            onSelect: function() 
            {  
                var children = jQuery(this).data("children");
                var jsonUrl = jQuery(this).data("jsonurl");
                if(children)
                 {
                     children = jQuery('#' + children);
                     alert('children was true');
                 }
                 else
                 {
                     children = jQuery();
                     alert('children was false');
                 }
                 var hiddendiv = jQuery('#' + this.id + '_hidden');
                 children.each(function()
                 {
                     var childJsonUrl = jsonUrl + '/' + hiddendiv.val() + '.json';
                     alert(childJsonUrl);
                     $(this).flexbox(childJsonUrl);   
                 });
             }

         });
    });
    setupdiv('vehicle_vehicleMake_input', '/vehicles/getmakes', ['vehicle_vehicleModel_input']);

    setupdiv('vehicle_vehicleModel_input', '/vehicles/getmodels', ['vehicle_vehicleTrim_input']);

    setupdiv('vehicle_vehicleTrim_input', '/vehicles/gettrims', []);
});

DISCLAIMER

I’m known for my spelling mistakes. Please spellcheck before using this code 😉

Update

I’ve changed the first two lines of code and I’ve normalized the indenting as there were a mix of tabs and spaces. Should be easier to read now.