jQuery change() on <select> and firefox

Question

I have a dropdown that triggers an ajax call when its changed:

$('.travel-to').change(function(){  
 $.ajax({
  type: "GET",
  url: "/inc/rates/rates-viewer.php",
  data: "shtech=y&c_name="+escape($(this).val()),
  success: function(html){
   $(".rates-viewer").html(html);
   $(".rates-viewer tr.numbers td").css({ opacity: 0 }).fadeTo("slow",1);
  }
 });
});

My problem is, in Firefox, using the up/down cursor keys to cycle through the dropdown options, doesn't trigger the js onChange() event. It's ok in IE.

How can I make Firefox see the up/down cursors as an onChange? Can I do an either/or on the event, to make either an onChange or a keypress trigger the same thing?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You're actually taking advantage of a bug in IE. Firefox supports onChange correctly, as it's not supposed to fire until the browser loses focus of the select field. (I answered a question yesterday about this very issue, in fact.) It's actually kind of dangerous to use onChange with a select, especially because there's no way for keyboard only users to skip some options. (On top of that, the mouse wheel seems to spin by multiple answers, but it actually fires onChange for each entry it passes by on IE.)

If you really want the event to fire whenever someone presses up or down, I would hook into the onKeyPress or onKeyDown events to fire whenever the "up" or "down" key is pressed.

Answer 2

Maybe instead of using the change() event use the blur() event and check to see if the value changed?

FYI, i have not tested this, just an idea that I had. and I am not sure if this is the desired effect because it would trigger on a lost of focus, but I am suggesting it as to keep the effect consistent across different browsers.

var currentValue;

$('.travel-to').blur(function(){
    var val = $(this).val();
    if (currentValue != val) {
        currentValue = val;
        $.ajax({
            type: "GET",
            url: "/inc/rates/rates-viewer.php",
            data: "shtech=y&c_name="+escape(currentValue),
            success: function(html){
                $(".rates-viewer").html(html);
                $(".rates-viewer tr.numbers td").css({ opacity: 0 }).fadeTo("slow",1);
            }
        });
    }
});

Answer 3

Yea, i had the same problem, i use blur to trigger my events on a select.