Question

I have tried many ways to select an option with jquery including .val("0") .attr('selected', 'selected') and .attr('selected', 'true') and the TexoTela plugin. They all seem to update the html but the browser still shows the last item selected by the user.

Try out this fiddle… Select the dropdown value 1 and then click the link.

Is there any way to actually update the displayed value?

Answer 1

You mean change which item is selected?

$('select').val('0');

There are other ways, but this is the basic, following your example.

jsfiddle

You can read up on the documenation for .val() here, and the snippet:

checks, or selects, all the radio
buttons, checkboxes, and select
options that match the set of values.

EDIT for jQuery Mobile

For jQuery Mobile you also need to refresh the select as mentioned in the mobile docs:

If you manipulate a select via
JavaScript, you must call the refresh
method on it to update the visual
styling.

You can do this by:

$('select').selectmenu("refresh",true);