Question

I’m using the following line to disable all checkboxes on a page:

$('input[type=checkbox]').attr('disabled', 'true');

I then want to reenable them if the ajax call succeeds, but this doesn’t seem to do it:

               $.ajax({
                   url: 'EditService.svc/whatever',
                   type: 'GET',
                   data: { "code": code },
                   dataType: 'json',
                   success: function () {
                       //clear status
                       $('.EditStatus').html('')
                       //reenable all checkboxes
                       $('input[type=checkbox]').attr('disabled', 'false');
                   },
                   error: function (a, b, c) {
                       $('.EditStatus').html("Database Error!");
                   }
               });

I don’t understand why. The //clear status portion works fine.

Answer 1

The string ‘true’ evaluates to true, because it’s a non-empty string, whereas ‘false’ is not falsy as it is not empty. Try:

$('input[type=checkbox]').attr('disabled', false);

and while this works:

$('input[type=checkbox]').attr('disabled', 'true');

You should still pass a boolean instead of a string.

If you are using jQuery 1.6+, you should use .prop (and .removeProp) instead.