Retrieving Field Value from Form Input Generated Dynamatically

Question

I am not sure whether this only happens to me. Basically if I have a new element added to the page using YUI

var element = new YAHOO.util.Element(document.createElement('input'));
element.set('value', 'some value');
element.appendTo(document.body);

Then I read the value of the element using these different ways, and get consistent result

element.get('value'); // get 'some value'
element.get('element').getAttribute('value'); // get 'some value'
element.get('element').value; // get 'some value'
// jquery as reference
jQuery(element.get('element').val()); // get 'some value'

If I change the field value through the browser (for example, 'new value'), and repeat the above steps again, i get some interesting values

element.get('value'); // get 'some value'
element.get('element').getAttribute('value'); // get 'some value'
element.get('element').value; // get 'new value'
// jquery as reference
jQuery(element.get('element').val()); // get 'new value'

However, if the input element is already exists in the page and is currently holding user input -> 'some value'

var element2 = new YAHOO.util.Element('some_input');

First read get same result as above scenario

element.get('value'); // get 'some value'
element.get('element').getAttribute('value'); // get 'some value'
element.get('element').value; // get 'some value'
// jquery as reference
jQuery(element.get('element').val()); // get 'some value'

if the user enters 'new value' to the input field through the browser, then repeating the above steps gets

element.get('value'); // get 'new value'
element.get('element').getAttribute('value'); // get 'new value'
element.get('element').value; // get 'new value'
// jquery as reference
jQuery(element.get('element').val()); // get 'new value'

I am just wondering why would I get different values for dynamically generated element if different way of retrieving data is used, or it is just because I am doing it wrong?

Answer 1

Old values popping up might be a caching issue.

I built your example using the latest YUI libraries here: http://tivac.com/yui2/jeffrey04_element.htm (you'll want to have Firebug open).

Using the correct

element.get('value');

calls is returning the proper value for me in both cases.

---

Not sure why

element.get('element').getAttribute('value')

is returning null sometimes though.

If you can narrow down the cases where it's returning an incorrect value I would create a simple test case and submit a bug. They really appreciate feedback like that and are generally fast to respond and fix issues.