Question

This may sound like a strange question, but hopefully there is an answer out there.

I have a number of select and text boxes in my HTML page. These boxes get populated at some point after the page is loaded and I have no control when they are; I just know that eventually after the page loads the boxes will be filled.

Is there any way to create a listener that can detect when these get populated?

I have been using setInterval/clearInterval, but I was hoping jQuery had a way of “listening” for when these get populated.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

If their values are being set by the user the you can listen to the change event.

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('input, select').change(function() {
        var $changedElement = $(this);

        if($changedElement.val() != '') {
            // code to keep track of which elements are checked..
        }
    });
});

If elements are being added to the page from script after the page load you’ll need to use live rather than change

$('input, select').live('change' function() {
    ....
});