Comments on: Adding Options to a Select Element

By: Tom Stewart

Tom Stewart — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:22:18 +0000

Why not simply use Prototype’s Ajax.Updater() and [re]load a complete SELECT options list all at once into a DIV tag set?

By: Subbu

Subbu — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:05:40 +0000

@Bramus!: Thanks a lot :)

By: Bramus!

Bramus! — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:33:10 +0000

Found this piece of code somewhere in the archive:

try {
el.add(option, null); // doesn't work in IE
} catch(e) {
el.add(option); // works in IE
}
}

Quite odd, but it works (looks like the null pos param is messing things up in IE) although it can't be used to insert elements anywhere but at the end. Maybe I should revise it and use your code ;-)

@ Tobie: thanks for the info :-)

@ Subbu: el is the element indeed retrieved by document.getElementById() (or the prototype $() shorthand). ".options" is a property of that element. (TIP: do a $('yourList'); in the FireBug console and click on the result to browse its properties and methods ;-))

By: Subbu

Subbu — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:16:05 +0000

Hi Ryan, I am a bit confused with the usage of ‘el.options’. Is ‘el’ the resultant of something like $(‘someElement’)? Then what is options method? Thanks.

By: Ryan Campbell

Ryan Campbell — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:24:30 +0000

Thanks for the heads up, Tobie. I’m with Morgan — it’s good to know there are people a lot smarter than I am staying on top of this stuff.

By: Morgan Roderick

Morgan Roderick — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:24:02 +0000

Yeah, I've run into this one on more than one occasion. After a period of time, I tend to forget, and run into it again.

Good to see that the fantastic libraries out there are handling more and more of this bllx for us.

By: Tobie Langel

Tobie Langel — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:17:51 +0000

Hi Ryan,

That's been fixed in SVN trunk. If you're running edge you can now write:

$(element).insert({bottom: 'foo'});

or:

$(element).insert('foo');

(Element#insert defaults to bottom if no option is specified.)

This syntax will replace new Insertion... in the next Prototype release (which will be kept for backwards compatibility).