alert() message isn't being called in my form

Question

Firebug is giving me no error messages, but it's not working. The idea is regardless of whether the user picks an option from dropdown or if they type in something in search box, I want the alert() message defined below to alert what the value of the variable result is (e.g. {filter: Germany}). And it doesn't. I think the javascript breaks down right when a new Form instance is instantiated because I tried putting an alert in the Form variable and it was never triggered. Note that everything that pertains to this issue occurs when form.calculation() is called.

markup:

        <fieldset>
        <select name="filter" alter-data="dropFilter">
            <option>Germany</option>
            <option>Ukraine</option>
            <option>Estonia</option>
        </select>   
        <input type="text" alter-data="searchFilter" />
    </fieldset> 

javascript (below the body tag)

 <script>
(function($){

var listview = $('#listview');

var lists = (function(){
    var criteria = {
        dropFilter: {
            insert: function(value){
                if(value)
                    return handleFilter("filter", value);  
            },
            msg: "Filtering..."
        },
        searchFilter: {
            insert: function(value){
                if(value)
                    return handleFilter("search", value);
            },
            msg: "Searching..."
        }

    }
    var handleFilter = function(key,value){
            return {key: value};
    }
    return {  
         create: function(component){
            var component = component.href.substring(component.href.lastIndexOf('#') + 1); 
            return component;
        },
         setDefaults: function(component){
            var parameter = {};
            switch(component){
                case "sites":
                    parameter = {
                        'order': 'site_num',
                        'per_page': '20',
                        'url': 'sites'
                    }
            }
            return parameter;
        },
        getCriteria: function(criterion){
            return criteria[criterion];     

        },
        addCriteria: function(criterion, method){
            criteria[criterion] = method;  
        }
    }
})(); 

var Form = function(form){
    var fields = [];
    $(form[0].elements).each(function(){  
        var field = $(this);  
        if(typeof field.attr('alter-data') !== 'undefined') fields.push(new Field(field));  
    })  
}

Form.prototype = {
    initiate: function(){
        for(field in this.fields){
            this.fields[field].calculate(); 
        }
    },
     isCalculable: function(){  
        for(field in this.fields){  
                if(!this.fields[field].alterData){  
                return false; 
            }
        } 
        return true;   
    } 
}

var Field = function(field){  
    this.field = field; 
    this.alterData = false; 
    this.attach("change");  
    this.attach("keyup");  
}

Field.prototype = {  
    attach: function(event){
        var obj = this;  
        if(event == "change"){
            obj.field.bind("change", function(){ 
                return obj.calculate();
            })
        }
        if(event == "keyup"){
            obj.field.bind("keyup", function(e){  
                return obj.calculate();
            })
        }
    },
    calculate: function(){
        var obj = this,  
            field = obj.field,  
            msgClass = "msgClass",
            msgList = $(document.createElement("ul")).addClass("msgClass"),  
            types = field.attr("alter-data").split(" "),  
            container = field.parent(), 
            messages = [];

        field.next(".msgClass").remove(); 
        for(var type in types){  
            var criterion = lists.getCriteria(types[type]);  
            if(field.val()){ 
                var result = criterion.insert(field.val()); 

                container.addClass("waitingMsg");  
                messages.push(criterion.msg);  

                obj.alterData = true;  

                alert(result);
                initializeTable(result);  

            }
            else {   
                return false;  
                obj.alterData = false;  
            }
        }
        if(messages.length){
            for(msg in messages){
                msgList.append("<li>" + messages[msg] + "</li");  
            }
        }
        else{
            msgList.remove();  
        }
    }
}

$('#dashboard a').click(function(){
    var currentComponent = lists.create(this);
    var custom = lists.setDefaults(currentComponent);
    initializeTable(custom);
});

var initializeTable = function(custom){
    var defaults = {};
    var custom = custom || {};

    var query_string = $.extend(defaults, custom);

    var params = [];
    $.each(query_string, function(key,value){
        params += key + ': ' + value; 
    })
    var url = custom['url'];

    $.ajax({
        type: 'GET',
        url: '/' + url,
        data: params,
        dataType: 'html',
        error: function(){},
        beforeSend: function(){},
        complete: function() {},
        success: function(response) { 
            listview.html(response);
        }
    })
}

$.extend($.fn, {  
    calculation: function(){

        var formReady = new Form($(this));

        if(formReady.isCalculable) {
            formReady.initiate();   
        }
    }

})


    var form = $('fieldset');
    form.calculation();
})(jQuery)  

Thank you for anyone who responds. I spent a lot of time trying to make this work.

Answer 1

The initial problem as to why the alert() was not being triggered when Form is instantiated is because, as you can see, the elements property belongs to the Form object, not fieldset object. And as you can see in the html, I place the fields as descendents of the fieldset object, not form.