Question

I’ve written some javascript using jQuery to replace any select lists with a div and ul alternative so that it will give me some more styling control and make the drop downs look the same cross browser. The below code works 99% for me but I have one issue. At the bottom of the code I have had to use .delay() to tell the code in a way to wait for the .each() loop above to finish doing what its doing. The problem with this is that there is atleast one second untill the replacement happens leaving a flash of the old select boxes. Also I can forsee another problem is what if it takes more than one second for the each() loop to complete…

How can I get the code at the bottom to only run once the each loop has run and complete. Also I welcome any optimizations on the rest of the code.

EDIT: Some of the HTML has been stripped from the code so I have pastebinned it: http://pastebin.com/4HFLjHE1

// Check when ready
$(function() {

    // Find dropdowns
    $("select.dropdownreplace").each(function() {replaceDropDown(this);});
    // If document clicked anywhere hide drop downs
    $(document).click(function(event){
        $("div.dropdownreplace ul").hide();
    });

});

function replaceDropDown(that) {
    // Create HTML for new drop down
    // hidden field
    var hiddeninput = $('');
    // div
    var dropdowndiv = $(''+$(":selected", that).text()+'
');

    // loop through values and make li's
    $("option", that).each(function() {
        $("ul", dropdowndiv).append('
'+$(this).val()+''+$(this).text()+'
');
        // set click handler for this drop down
        $(dropdowndiv).click(function() {
            $("ul", this).show();
            return false;
        });
        // set click handler for link items
        $("a", dropdowndiv).click(function() {
            // Get name of hidden input
            var nameofdropdown = $(this).parent().parent().parent().attr('id');
            var nameofinput = nameofdropdown.replace("dropdownreplacement_", "");
            // set hidden input value to whats been clicked
            $("[name='"+nameofinput+"']").val($(this).parent().find("span").text());
            // set div
            $("div#"+nameofdropdown+" > span").text($(this).text());
            $("div#"+nameofdropdown+" ul").hide();
            return false;
        });
    });

    // Remove drop down then add in replacement html
    $(that).delay(1000).after(hiddeninput);
    $(that).delay(1100).after(dropdowndiv);
    $(that).delay(1200).remove();   
}

Thnaks

Scott

Answer 1

Inside your function, compare the index jquery passes you, with the total number of items you have.

I don’t know your html, but I believe you can do this.

Change your function so it receives the index param that jquery sends.

$("option", that).each(function(index) {

Then, at the end of that function compare the length with the index, if they are the same, then you’re done

if ( $('option', that).length == (index +1 ) ) {
    $(that).after(hiddeninput);
    $(that).after(dropdowndiv);
    $(that).remove();
}

From my tests, this should be what you need. Don’t know if there is a more “standard” way to do it.

Hope this helps