Question

I am currently working with Jquery UI tabs and dynamic select boxes. I am currently trying have the buttons disabled until user selects and item from the select box . Is it possible/How can get the user to first click on an item in the select box before advancing to the next tab? I dont have anything that I can build from but here is my EXAMPLE so far.

JS- For previous/next button

   <script>
            $(function() {

                var $tabs = $('#tabs').tabs();

                $(".ui-tabs-panel").each(function(i){

                  var totalSize = $(".ui-tabs-panel").size() - 1;

                  if (i != totalSize) {
                      next = i + 2;
                      $(this).append("<a href='#' class='next-tab mover' rel='" + next + "'>Next Page &#187;</a>");
                  }

                  if (i != 0) {
                      prev = i;
                      $(this).append("<a href='#' class='prev-tab mover' rel='" + prev + "'>&#171; Prev Page</a>");
                  }

                });

                $('.next-tab, .prev-tab').click(function() { 
                       $tabs.tabs('select', $(this).attr("rel"));
                       return false;
                   });


            });
    </script>

PHP/HTML

<select name="gender" id="gender" class="update" size="7"> 
        <option value="">Select one</option> 
            <?php if (!empty($list)) { ?> 
                <?php foreach($list as $row) { ?> 
                    <option value="<?php echo $row['id']; ?>"> 
                        <?php echo $row['category_name']; ?> 
                                </option> 
                            <?php } ?> 
                        <?php } ?> 
</select> 

<select name="category" id="category" class="update" disabled="disabled" hidden="hidden" size="7"> 
        <option value="">----</option> 
</select> 

<select name="colour" id="colour" class="update" disabled="disabled" hidden="hidden" size="7"> 
        <option value="">----</option> 
</select> 

Answer 1

There are some solutions (with the 2nd solution you can nevertheless change the tab without clicking the next button).

1.) You can disable the second tab ($('#tabs').tab({ disabled: [1] });) and enable the tab, if an option is selected e.g. by adding following change handler:

$('#gender').change(function() {
    $('#tabs').tabs(
        'option',
        'disabled',
        (parseInt($(this).val(), 10) > 0 ? [] : [1])
    );
});

Also see this example.

2.) You can update your next click handler; change the tab only if a gender is choosen:

$('.next-tab, .prev-tab').click(function() {
    if (parseInt($('#gender').val(), 10) > 0) {
        $tabs.tabs('select', $(this).attr("rel"));
    }
    return false;
});

Also see this example.

3.) Add a tab select handler, which returns false, if the user is on the first tab and no gender is choosen; add an object as tab parameter with a tab select handler:

var iOldTab = 0;
var $tabs = $('#tabs').tabs({
    select: function(event, ui) {
        var bChange = (iOldTab != 0 || parseInt($('#gender').val(), 10) > 0);
        if (bChange) {
            iOldTab = ui.index;
        }
        return bChange;
    }
});

Also see this example.

---

Finally I prefer the first solution because the user can see that the second tab can’t be reached (until he choose a gender) and the result of choosing (enabling the tab) will be shown immediately.

=== UPDATE ===

Ok, if you have different numbers of selects (deppending on the values of the previous selects), here an alternative (untested) solution:

1.) Replace the content of the jQuery.getJSON in the updateSelectBox.js (the really last select will be marked):

// following line is added
$('.update').removeClass('last');
if (!data.error) {
    obj.next('.update').html(data.list).removeAttr('disabled hidden');
} else {
    // following line is changed
    obj.addClass('last').nextAll('.update').attr({'disabled': true, 'hidden':true}).html('<option value="">----</option>');
}

2.) Call the tab with disabled tab 2

$('#tabs').tab({ disabled: [1] });

3.) Add following select change handler:

$('.update').change(function() {
    $('#tabs').tabs(
        'option',
        'disabled',
        (
            $(this).hasClass('last') &&
            parseInt($(this).val(), 10) > 0 ?
            [] :
            [1]
        )
    );
});