Question

I wonder – do I need to use ready events like $(document).ready() in jQuery for DOM manipulation. For example, I have a javascript function:

function handler(input,id) {        
    $(document).ready(function(){
        document.getElementById(input).value = id;
        document.search_form.submit();  
    });

}

Answer 1

A couple of comments regarding your code :

1. function handler(input,id) {        
2.    $(document).ready(function(){
3.        document.getElementById(input).value = id;
4.        document.search_form.submit();  
5.    });
6.}

Line 2 and 5 are not needed – since this is a function and will be called rather than execute on load you don’t need the ready handler. The $(document).ready(function() { line means execute the following code when the DOM is ready – if its inside a function like yours is its not needed (but will still work). You can read more about ready() here

Line 3 can be changed to $('#'+input).val(id); this uses the jQuery ID selector and the val() function to change the value.

Ending up with

function handler(input,id) {        
  $('#'+input).val(id);
  document.search_form.submit();  
}

You could probably change your code a little more judging by the function name ….