Jquery .change() function not working with dynamically populated SELECT list

Question

I have a select field that is dynamically populated with an ajax call that simply returns all the HTML select options. Here is the part of the PHP that just echo's the select tags and dynamically fills out each option/value.

echo "<select name='player1' class='affector'>";
echo "<option value='' selected>--".sizeof($start)." PLAYERS LOADED--</option>";

foreach ($start as $value) {
    echo "<option value='".$value."'>".$value."</option>";
 }  
  echo "</select>";
}  

After this list is populated, I'm trying to call a change event, so that whenever the default option is changed in the SELECT list or in a text field with the same class, it disables a radio button set in another part of the form. (You can see the initial question I asked to get this part of the functionality working here)

$('.affector').change(function(){
       $(this).parents('tr').find('input:radio').attr('disabled', false);
});

For some reason, even though I give the select field the proper class name (affector), when I select different options in the field, the other parts of the form do not disable. The static text field with the same class works fine. I'm stumped.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

For items that are dynamically inserted into the DOM, their events must be bound with

$('.selector').bind('change',function() { doWork() });

This is because when you run $(function(){}); and bind events using $.click or $.change, etc., you are binding events to elements already existing in the DOM. Any manipulation you do after that does not get affected by whatever happens in the $(function(){}); call. $.bind tells your page to look for future elements in your selector as well as current ones.

Answer 2

try .live: http://docs.jquery.com/Events/live

From docs: Binds a handler to an event (like click) for all current - and future - matched element. Can also bind custom events.

Answer 3

Just commented on your last question...Here's what I said:

Use jQuery bind

function addSelectChange(){ 
   $('select').bind('change', function(){ //yada yada });
} 

Call addSelectChange in your ajax success function. It should do the trick. Take a look at jQuery live event too (for when you want to set events for all current and future DOM elements in a later project or something). Unfortunately the change event and a few others aren't yet supported with live. Bind is the next best thing