Question

I have code like

function populate...() {
    var user = $.storage.get("particulars");

    if (user) {
        console.log($("#frmRegister")); // returns [] why? 
        $("#frmRegister").find("input[name=name]").val(user.name).end()
        .find("input[name=email]").val(user.email).end()
        .find("input[name=contact]").val(user.contact).end()
        .find("input[name=faculty]").val(user.faculty).end()
        .find("input[name=course]").val(user.course).end()
        .find("input[name=year]").val(user.year).end();
    }
    console.log("out")
}

$(function() {
    eventsViewModel.populateRegistrationForm();
})

Full code

I wonder why $("#frmRegister") returns null in the log, while in chrome when I use the console to do $("#frmRegister") I get the form

Does Knockout.js interfere with such things? My form looks like:

<form action="" 
  method="POST"
  data-bind="submit: $root.submitRegistration, visible: !registered()"
  id="frmRegister"
>

UPDATE

See http://octopus.phpfogapp.com/ for the code. The line in question is line 154. (unless I change it. If so you could probably search for $("#frmRegister").find("input[name=name]") or maybe $("#frmRegister

Answer 1

Instead of writing your Form like this…

 <form action="" method="POST" data-bind="submit: $root.submitRegistration, visible: !registered()" id="frmRegister">
...

Write it like this:

 <form action="/give/a/url.here" method="POST" id="frmRegister">

The jQuery has a whole bunch of issues like use of storage and data-bind as super globals, but your specific issue is:

    if (user.name != "") {
        $("#frmRegister").find("input[name=name]").val(user.name).end()
        .find("input[name=email]").val(user.email).end()
        .find("input[name=contact]").val(user.contact).end()
        .find("input[name=faculty]").val(user.faculty).end()
        .find("input[name=course]").val(user.course).end()
        .find("input[name=year]").val(user.year).end();
    }

Can be written as:

    if (user.name != "") {
        $("#frmRegister input").val(user.[$(this).prop('name')]).end()
    }

• Stop super-chaining, you create your own problems when you do it.
• jQuery is ugly, the code I’ve shown you is terrible
• There’s other problems in your code, I highly encourage you to learn beyond whatever your school is teaching you. A good starting place is the JavaScript tag wiki on our site.
• I haven’t actually tested what I posted, I’m running out the door to work right now.