Question

I’m stuck on something. I have a form that has fields which only show when a particular radio button is checked. This is easy enough to when someone is filling out the form for the first time using the following code.

HTML

<fieldset id="question">
  <legend>This is my question</legend>
  <label for="answerYes">Yes</label>
  <input name="answer" id="answerYes" type="radio" value="1" />
  <label for="answerNo">No</label>
  <input name="answer" id="answerNo" type="radio" value="0" />
</fieldset>

jQuery

$("#subQuestion").hide();
$("#answerYes").click(function() {
  $("#subQuestion").show();
});
$("#answerNo").click(function() {
  $("#subQuestion").hide();
});

This logic breaks down though when someone comes back to the form to edit it. In that case, the fields are prepopulated so the click function doesn’t exist. How can I use jQuery to show #subQuestion if #answerYes is checked when the page loads.

Answer 1

Try adding a $(document).ready() handler to your page…

$(document).ready(function(){
  // do your checks of the radio buttons here and show/hide what you want to
  $("#subQuestion").hide();
  if ($("#answerYes:checked").length > 0){ $("#subQuestion").show(); }

  // add functionality for the onclicks here
  $("#answerYes").click(function() {
    $("#subQuestion").show();
  });

  $("#answerNo").click(function() {
    $("#subQuestion").hide();
  });
});

This handler will fire off once the page is completely loaded (and dynamically pre-populated with values)