[Javascript] adding Option to an opener.form.select

Tue Mar 25 10:15:41 CST 2003

Well, I've used this between remotes and the parent window (thereby making all the inheritance Nazis jump up and down) by simply prefacing the directive with 'window.opener'.  Obviously, if you have multiple forms you'll have to use more inventive means
of addressing them, such as 'window.opener.document.forms["myForm2"]' or whatever.  It will get even more complicated if you have multiple forms AND multiple frames, for you'll have to address the frame first before you can hook on to the form.

One way to avoid exercising the inheritance Nazis quite so much is to create a function native to the remote/parent window which adds the option you need.  Then you can play the 'remote' game --

	window.opener.document.forms["myForm2].addNewOption("nifty");

where addNewOption is a function defined within the same page you are trying to change.  Obviously, if you are working from the parent window to a child window, all you have to do is dispense with the 'opener' directive, and use 

	winID.document.forms["myForm2"].addNewOption("nifty");  

where winID is the window identifier created when the child window was spawned originally.

  Many variations are possible, and the pitfalls you experience will depend on the architecture of how your frames, forms, and child windows are linked.  I won't pretend that this will solve all your problems straight-away, but it may give you some
notions.  If you want to poke me again with a more explicit architectural relationship of how your various bits fit together, I'll be glad to look into it.

  [Depending on how tightly meshed your code is, you may have to dereference to 'parent' or 'top' in order to get the various bits to see each other].

  -- Dave Lovering

Terry wrote:
> 
> thanks, but using the forms[x] is out of the question as other forms maybe
> added in areas previous to the this dynamically...  and your example
> addresses a select in the current document and not the opener in which i am
> having the problems...
> 
> and as for the other info, i know what the function definition is for
> option() and how to develop for my audience...  what i need is a second look
> at previous code to see if i missed something...  or to see if this is a
> know bug/problem...
> 
> i tried adding .options[length] to the intialization of the new index but
> that still crashed it... even removed the 3rd and 4th arguments in the new
> option() declaration... still the same... everything so far leads to a
> crashed browser (IE)...
> 
> the problem i think is browser based when adding options to select objects
> in the opener,  everytime it tries to set something in the opener select for
> which an index doesnt not exist it crashes...  however, when just updating a
> current index value it works fine, but that means one of my options is
> overridden....
> 
> so i am now working on a work-around....  was hoping someone had more
> constructive data on this problem with a select in the opener...
> 
> and as for your "ranting", i would leave that to the other lists to
> debate...
> 
> thanks....
> 
> ~ Terry
> 757 581-5981
> AIM/Yahoo: lv2bounce
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David T. Lovering" <dlovering at gazos.com>
> To: "[JavaScript List]" <javascript at LaTech.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 10:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [Javascript] adding Option to an opener.form.select
> 
> >
> > Ugh!  Cold-Fusion (even the latest and greatest version) is a poor
> substitute for good solid PHP, Java, and JavaScript coding.  Its features
> are chaotic, non-orthogonal, and integrate very poorly with other packages,
> and have all sorts of inheritance
> > issues which will drive you mad eventually.  [And let us not forget that
> it is God-awful slow, has huge latency problems, and sucks screen and CPU
> resources]. The only people who like it are newbies who think they only have
> to learn one "language" to make
> > everything they want done happen without any downsides.
> > Enough ranting.
> >
> > The method I use for adding to a pre-existing select widget is as
> follows --
> >
> >   var myMenu = document.forms[0].mySelect;
> >   myMenu.options[myMenu.length] = new Option("bogus", "bogus-value");
> >
> > Obviously, you can insert the other two Option parameters if you wish [the
> third controls the default selection, and the fourth determines whether this
> item is selected for the moment], but I usually leave that to my 'init'
> routine to work out.
> >
> > Although the DOM model certainly encourages you to believe that the
> universal constructor assignments are 100% viable, I've had problems with
> them, particularly in computing environments with diverse browsers, OS's,
> and such like.  You are welcome to try
> > them of course (and many are very useful), but be sure to vet them for all
> the platforms you expect to have exercising your code.
> >
> > -- Dave Lovering
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Terry wrote:
> > code
> > -------------------------------------------
> > newOption = new Option(optTxt, optVal, 0, 1);
> >
> opener.#attributes.formName#.#attributes.elem#[opener.#attributes.formName#.
> #attributes.elem#.length] = newOption;
> >
> >
> > ok, able to read values from the opener.form.select using the same syntax
> as above but i cannot seem to add a new option...
> >
> > btw, the ## are CF variables, just assume that attributes.formName is the
> name of the form from opener and attributes.elem is the name of the select
> object......
> >
> > comments??
> >
> >
> > ~ Terry
> > 757 581-5981
> > AIM/Yahoo: lv2bounce
> > _______________________________________________
> > Javascript mailing list
> > Javascript at LaTech.edu
> > https://lists.LaTech.edu/mailman/listinfo/javascript
> >
> 
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