Creating a JS function to send boolean to Coldfusion Filter Funtion?

Question

Is it possible to send a javascript function to test if a form field was changed then pass a boolean (bCheckField) to a filter function that will tell it to actually perform the check or to skip over the validation and continue? If so, how should I approach this?

Utilizing Coldfusion 8, MachII and Microsoft SQL.

Thank you very much...

Answer 1

The easiest way, as far as I know, would be to check your checkbox (or populate your hidden field, etc.) when an onChange() fires on the target field.

On the other hand, if this is to insert/update a SQL field, I probably wouldn't trust the JS to allow the user to skip validation (unless it also skips the insert/update). You could always store the original field data in a persistent scope and do a comparison server-side when the form is returned.

Answer 2

You could store the current value in hidden fields.

like so:

<input type="text" id="firstname" value="#firstname#">
<input type="hidden" id="old_firstname"  value="#firstname#">

on post compare each to send the flag to CF.

Answer 3

You could assign an event handler for the onchange even.

For example:

var wasChanged = {};

inputElement.onchange = function () { wasChanged[this.id] = true; }

function validateElement (element) {
   if (wasChanged[element.id]) {
      // validate
   }
}