Dynamic Option List - DynamicOptionList.js

// ===================================================================
// Author: Matt Kruse <[email protected]>
// WWW: http://www.mattkruse.com/
//
// NOTICE: You may use this code for any purpose, commercial or
// private, without any further permission from the author. You may
// remove this notice from your final code if you wish, however it is
// appreciated by the author if at least my web site address is kept.
//
// You may *NOT* re-distribute this code in any way except through its
// use. That means, you can include it in your product, or your web
// site, or any other form where the code is actually being used. You
// may not put the plain javascript up on your site for download or
// include it in your javascript libraries for download.
// If you wish to share this code with others, please just point them
// to the URL instead.
// Please DO NOT link directly to my .js files from your site. Copy
// the files to your server and use them there. Thank you.
// ===================================================================

// HISTORY
// ------------------------------------------------------------------
// Feb 15, 2005: Documentation Fix
// March 31, 2004: First release
/*

DESCRIPTION: This library allows you to easily create select boxes whose
contents depend on the value in a parent select box. It supports default
options, preselected options, single or multiple-select lists, multiple
form fields referencing the same list structure, form resetting, and most
importantly, it's backwards-compatible way back to Netscape 4!

COMPATABILITY: Netscape 4+, IE, Opera >5 (O5 didn't support new Option()),
and should work on all other newer browsers.

USAGE:

// Create a new object, passing in the fields that make up the dynamic set
// of lists.
var dol = new DynamicOptionList("Field1","Child1","Child2");

// Or, you can create it empty, and pass in sets of select objects later
var dol = new DynamicOptionList();
dol.addDependentFields("Field1","Child1","Child2");

// Once you have the list object defined, you can additional sets of dependent
// fields, too. These sets will act as separate groups of related fields, but
// will all use the same options and data.
dol.addDependentOptions("Field1","Child2-1","Child2-2");

// By default, the script will automatically find the form where your select
// objects exist. But you can explicitly set it if you wish, either by form
// name or index.
dol.setFormName("MyForm");
dol.setFormIndex(1);

// Now define the options that will exist in sub-lists. This is done in a
// very logical way - you say for an option in the parent, populate the child
// with specific options. When selecting which parent option you're dealing
// with, you can either select by its value or its display text. This command
// says, for an option in the parent list that has value="Value1", if it is
// selected then populate the child list with the given sub-options.
dol.forValue("Value1").addOptions("Suboption1","Suboption2","Suboption3");

// And you can also say, for an option in the parent list that has display
// text of "Text1", if it is selected then populate the child list with the
// given sub-options.
dol.forText("Text1").addOptions("Suboption1","Suboption2","Suboption3");

// For multi-level lists, you just continue the chain...
// This says, if an option with value "Value1" is selected in the first list,
// then an option with values "Value2" is selected in the second list, populate
// the third list with these options.
dol.forValue("Value1").forValue("Value2").addOptions("1","2","3");

// If the options you want to add should have different values and dislplay
// text, you can do that
dol.forValue("Value1").addOptionsTextValue("Text2","Value2");

// When an option is selected from the first list, and the options in the
// second list are populated, you may want to have one of the options in the
// child list be selected by default.
dol.forValue("Value1").setDefaultOptions("MyValue");

// When the page first loads, you may set the values of the dependent select
// lists to be selected by default. For example, when a user is editing an
// existing record where they've already selected from the parent/child
// relationships. This is different from the default option in that this
// value is only selected when the page LOADS. If the user changes selections,
// this will be lost.
dol.forField("Field1").setValues("MyPreselectedValue");

// By default, if there are is no option which should be selected in the child
// list, the code will automatically select the first option in the list. If
// you want it to instead set selectedIndex = -1 (nothing selected - works in
// most browsers but not all) than you can tell it to do that instead
dol.selectFirstOption = false;

// MODIFYING THE HTML
// If you are supporting Netscape 4.x browsers, you will need to insert a call to
// the library to populate options. This is because Netscape4 will not expand the
// size of the select box as new options are added, so you have to "pad" the list
// with blank options in order for it to work right.
// This is the ONLY change you should need to make to your HTML. To do this, just
// add a javascript block between your <select> </select> tags like this:

<select name="list1"><script>dol.printOptions("list1")</script></select>

// You only need to pass it the name of the select options that it should print
// options for.


NOTES:
- There seems to be an issue with Netscape6, if you hit Reload on the page. It
   doesn't happen every time, and I can't figure out why it happens at all.

- If your select objects have onChange handlers in them, you'll need to manually
   add a call to the DynamicOptionList code to trigger the population of the child
   list. For example,
  
   <select onChange="yourfunction(); dol.change(this)">

*/
// Global objects to keep track of DynamicOptionList objects created on the page
var dynamicOptionListCount=0;
var dynamicOptionListObjects = new Array();

// Init call to setup lists after page load. One call to this function sets up all lists.
function initDynamicOptionLists() {
// init each DynamicOptionList object
for (var i=0; i<dynamicOptionListObjects.length; i++) {
var dol = dynamicOptionListObjects[i];

// Find the form associated with this list
if (dol.formName!=null) {
dol.form = document.forms[dol.formName];
}
else if (dol.formIndex!=null) {
dol.form = document.forms[dol.formIndex];
}
else {
// Form wasn't set manually, so go find it!
// Search for the first form element name in the lists
var name = dol.fieldNames[0][0];
for (var f=0; f<document.forms.length; f++) {
if (typeof(document.forms[f][name])!="undefined") {
dol.form = document.forms[f];
break;
}
}
if (dol.form==null) {
alert("ERROR: Couldn't find form element "+name+" in any form on the page! Init aborted"); return;
}
}

// Form is found, now set the onchange attributes of each dependent select box
for (var j=0; j<dol.fieldNames.length; j++) {
// For each set of field names...
for (var k=0; k<dol.fieldNames[j].length-1; k++) {
// For each field in the set...
var selObj = dol.form[dol.fieldNames[j][k]];
if (typeof(selObj)=="undefined") { alert("Select box named "+dol.fieldNames[j][k]+" could not be found in the form. Init aborted"); return; }
// Map the HTML options in the first select into the options we created
if (k==0) {
if (selObj.options!=null) {
for (l=0; l<selObj.options.length; l++) {
var sopt = selObj.options[l];
var m = dol.findMatchingOptionInArray(dol.options,sopt.text,sopt.value,false);
if (m!=null) {
var reselectForNN6 = sopt.selected;
var m2 = new Option(sopt.text, sopt.value, sopt.defaultSelected, sopt.selected);
m2.selected = sopt.selected; // For some reason I need to do this to make NN4 happy
m2.defaultSelected = sopt.defaultSelected;
m2.DOLOption = m;
selObj.options[l] = m2;
selObj.options[l].selected = reselectForNN6; // Reselect this option for NN6 to be happy. Yuck.
}
}
}
}
if (selObj.onchange==null) {
// We only modify the onChange attribute if it's empty! Otherwise do it yourself in your source!
selObj.onchange = new Function("dynamicOptionListObjects["+dol.index+"].change(this)");
}
}
}
}
// Set the preselectd options on page load
resetDynamicOptionLists();
}

// This function populates lists with the preselected values.
// It's pulled out into a separate function so it can be hooked into a 'reset' button on a form
// Optionally passed a form object which should be the only form reset
function resetDynamicOptionLists(theform) {
// reset each DynamicOptionList object
for (var i=0; i<dynamicOptionListObjects.length; i++) {
var dol = dynamicOptionListObjects[i];
if (typeof(theform)=="undefined" || theform==null || theform==dol.form) {
for (var j=0; j<dol.fieldNames.length; j++) {
dol.change(dol.form[dol.fieldNames[j][0]],true); // Second argument says to use preselected values rather than default values
}
}
}
}

// An object to represent an Option() but just for data-holding
function DOLOption(text,value,defaultSelected,selected) {
this.text = text;
this.value = value;
this.defaultSelected = defaultSelected;
this.selected = selected;
this.options = new Array(); // To hold sub-options
return this;
}

// DynamicOptionList CONSTRUCTOR
function DynamicOptionList() {
this.form = null;// The form this list belongs to
this.options = new Array();// Holds the options of dependent lists
this.longestString = new Array();// Longest string that is currently a potential option (for Netscape)
this.numberOfOptions = new Array();// The total number of options that might be displayed, to build dummy options (for Netscape)
this.currentNode = null;// The current node that has been selected with forValue() or forText()
this.currentField = null;// The current field that is selected to be used for setValue()
this.currentNodeDepth = 0;// How far down the tree the currentNode is
this.fieldNames = new Array();// Lists of dependent fields which use this object
this.formIndex = null;// The index of the form to associate with this list
this.formName = null;// The name of the form to associate with this list
this.fieldListIndexes = new Object();// Hold the field lists index where fields exist
this.fieldIndexes = new Object();// Hold the index within the list where fields exist
this.selectFirstOption = true;// Whether or not to select the first option by default if no options are default or preselected, otherwise set the selectedIndex = -1
this.numberOfOptions = new Array();// Store the max number of options for a given option list
this.longestString = new Array();// Store the longest possible string
this.values = new Object(); // Will hold the preselected values for fields, by field name

// Method mappings
this.forValue = DOL_forValue;
this.forText = DOL_forText;
this.forField = DOL_forField;
this.forX = DOL_forX;
this.addOptions = DOL_addOptions;
this.addOptionsTextValue = DOL_addOptionsTextValue;
this.setDefaultOptions = DOL_setDefaultOptions;
this.setValues = DOL_setValues;
this.setValue = DOL_setValues;
this.setFormIndex = DOL_setFormIndex;
this.setFormName = DOL_setFormName;
this.printOptions = DOL_printOptions;
this.addDependentFields = DOL_addDependentFields;
this.change = DOL_change;
this.child = DOL_child;
this.selectChildOptions = DOL_selectChildOptions;
this.populateChild = DOL_populateChild;
this.change = DOL_change;
this.addNewOptionToList = DOL_addNewOptionToList;
this.findMatchingOptionInArray = DOL_findMatchingOptionInArray;

// Optionally pass in the dependent field names
if (arguments.length > 0) {
// Process arguments and add dependency groups
for (var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
this.fieldListIndexes[arguments[i].toString()] = this.fieldNames.length;
this.fieldIndexes[arguments[i].toString()] = i;
}
this.fieldNames[this.fieldNames.length] = arguments;
}

// Add this object to the global array of dynamicoptionlist objects
this.index = window.dynamicOptionListCount++;
window["dynamicOptionListObjects"][this.index] = this;
}

// Given an array of Option objects, search for an existing option that matches value, text, or both
function DOL_findMatchingOptionInArray(a,text,value,exactMatchRequired) {
if (a==null || typeof(a)=="undefined") { return null; }
var value_match = null; // Whether or not a value has been matched
var text_match = null; // Whether or not a text has been matched
for (var i=0; i<a.length; i++) {
var opt = a[i];
// If both value and text match, return it right away
if (opt.value==value && opt.text==text) { return opt; }
if (!exactMatchRequired) {
// If value matches, store it until we complete scanning the list
if (value_match==null && value!=null && opt.value==value) {
value_match = opt;
}
// If text matches, store it for later
if (text_match==null && text!=null && opt.text==text) {
text_match = opt;
}
}
}
return (value_match!=null)?value_match:text_match;
}

// Util function used by forValue and forText
function DOL_forX(s,type) {
if (this.currentNode==null) { this.currentNodeDepth=0; }
var useNode = (this.currentNode==null)?this:this.currentNode;
var o = this.findMatchingOptionInArray(useNode["options"],(type=="text")?s:null,(type=="value")?s:null,false);
if (o==null) {
o = new DOLOption(null,null,false,false);
o[type] = s;
useNode.options[useNode.options.length] = o;
}
this.currentNode = o;
this.currentNodeDepth++;
return this;
}

// Set the portion of the list structure that is to be used by a later operation like addOptions
function DOL_forValue(s) { return this.forX(s,"value"); }

// Set the portion of the list structure that is to be used by a later operation like addOptions
function DOL_forText(s) { return this.forX(s,"text"); }

// Set the field to be used for setValue() calls
function DOL_forField(f) { this.currentField = f; return this; }

// Create and add an option to a list, avoiding duplicates
function DOL_addNewOptionToList(a, text, value, defaultSelected) {
var o = new DOLOption(text,value,defaultSelected,false);
// Add the option to the array
if (a==null) { a = new Array(); }
for (var i=0; i<a.length; i++) {
if (a[i].text==o.text && a[i].value==o.value) {
if (o.selected) {
a[i].selected=true;
}
if (o.defaultSelected) {
a[i].defaultSelected = true;
}
return a;
}
}
a[a.length] = o;
}

// Add sub-options to the currently-selected node, with the same text and value for each option
function DOL_addOptions() {
if (this.currentNode==null) { this.currentNode = this; }
if (this.currentNode["options"] == null) { this.currentNode["options"] = new Array(); }
for (var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
var text = arguments[i];
this.addNewOptionToList(this.currentNode.options,text,text,false);
if (typeof(this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth])=="undefined") {
this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth]=0;
}
if (this.currentNode.options.length > this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth]) {
this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth] = this.currentNode.options.length;
}
if (typeof(this.longestString[this.currentNodeDepth])=="undefined" || (text.length > this.longestString[this.currentNodeDepth].length)) {
this.longestString[this.currentNodeDepth] = text;
}
}
this.currentNode = null;
this.currentNodeDepth = 0;
}

// Add sub-options to the currently-selected node, specifying separate text and values for each option
function DOL_addOptionsTextValue() {
if (this.currentNode==null) { this.currentNode = this; }
if (this.currentNode["options"] == null) { this.currentNode["options"] = new Array(); }
for (var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
var text = arguments[i++];
var value = arguments[i];
this.addNewOptionToList(this.currentNode.options,text,value,false);
if (typeof(this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth])=="undefined") {
this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth]=0;
}
if (this.currentNode.options.length > this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth]) {
this.numberOfOptions[this.currentNodeDepth] = this.currentNode.options.length;
}
if (typeof(this.longestString[this.currentNodeDepth])=="undefined" || (text.length > this.longestString[this.currentNodeDepth].length)) {
this.longestString[this.currentNodeDepth] = text;
}
}
this.currentNode = null;
this.currentNodeDepth = 0;
}

// Find the first dependent list of a select box
// If it's the last list in a chain, return null because there are no children
function DOL_child(obj) {
var listIndex = this.fieldListIndexes[obj.name];
var index = this.fieldIndexes[obj.name];
if (index < (this.fieldNames[listIndex].length-1)) {
return this.form[this.fieldNames[listIndex][index+1]];
}
return null;
}

// Set the options which should be selected by default for a certain value in the parent
function DOL_setDefaultOptions() {
if (this.currentNode==null) { this.currentNode = this; }
for (var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
var o = this.findMatchingOptionInArray(this.currentNode.options,null,arguments[i],false);
if (o!=null) {
o.defaultSelected = true;
}
}
this.currentNode = null;
}

// Set the options which should be selected when the page loads. This is different than the default value and ONLY applies when the page LOADS
function DOL_setValues() {
if (this.currentField==null) {
alert("Can't call setValues() without using forField() first!");
return;
}
if (typeof(this.values[this.currentField])=="undefined") {
this.values[this.currentField] = new Object();
}
for (var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
this.values[this.currentField][arguments[i]] = true;
}
this.currentField = null;
}

// Manually set the form for the object using an index
function DOL_setFormIndex(i) {
this.formIndex = i;
}

// Manually set the form for the object using a form name
function DOL_setFormName(n) {
this.formName = n;
}

// Print blank <option> objects for Netscape4, since it refuses to grow or shrink select boxes for new options
function DOL_printOptions(name) {
// Only need to write out "dummy" options for Netscape4
    if ((navigator.appName == 'Netscape') && (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) <= 4)){
var index = this.fieldIndexes[name];
var ret = "";
if (typeof(this.numberOfOptions[index])!="undefined") {
for (var i=0; i<this.numberOfOptions[index]; i++) {
ret += "<OPTION>";
}
}
ret += "<OPTION>";
if (typeof(this.longestString[index])!="undefined") {
for (var i=0; i<this.longestString[index].length; i++) {
ret += "_";
}
}
document.writeln(ret);
}
}

// Add a list of field names which use this option-mapping object.
// A single mapping object may be used by multiple sets of fields
function DOL_addDependentFields() {
for (var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
this.fieldListIndexes[arguments[i].toString()] = this.fieldNames.length;
this.fieldIndexes[arguments[i].toString()] = i;
}
this.fieldNames[this.fieldNames.length] = arguments;
}

// Called when a parent select box is changed. It populates its direct child, then calls change on the child object to continue the population.
function DOL_change(obj, usePreselected) {
if (usePreselected==null || typeof(usePreselected)=="undefined") { usePreselected = false; }
var changedListIndex = this.fieldListIndexes[obj.name];
var changedIndex = this.fieldIndexes[obj.name];
var child = this.child(obj);
if (child == null) { return; } // No child, no need to continue
if (obj.type == "select-one") {
// Treat single-select differently so we don't have to scan the entire select list, which could potentially speed things up
if (child.options!=null) {
child.options.length=0; // Erase all the options from the child so we can re-populate
}
if (obj.options!=null && obj.options.length>0 && obj.selectedIndex>=0) {
var o = obj.options[obj.selectedIndex];
this.populateChild(o.DOLOption,child,usePreselected);
this.selectChildOptions(child,usePreselected);
}
}
else if (obj.type == "select-multiple") {
// For each selected value in the parent, find the options to fill in for this list
// Loop through the child list and keep track of options that are currently selected
var currentlySelectedOptions = new Array();
if (!usePreselected) {
for (var i=0; i<child.options.length; i++) {
var co = child.options[i];
if (co.selected) {
this.addNewOptionToList(currentlySelectedOptions, co.text, co.value, co.defaultSelected);
}
}
}
child.options.length=0;
if (obj.options!=null) {
var obj_o = obj.options;
// For each selected option in the parent...
for (var i=0; i<obj_o.length; i++) {
if (obj_o[i].selected) {
// if option is selected, add its children to the list
this.populateChild(obj_o[i].DOLOption,child,usePreselected);
}
}
// Now go through and re-select any options which were selected before
var atLeastOneSelected = false;
if (!usePreselected) {
for (var i=0; i<child.options.length; i++) {
var m = this.findMatchingOptionInArray(currentlySelectedOptions,child.options[i].text,child.options[i].value,true);
if (m!=null) {
child.options[i].selected = true;
atLeastOneSelected = true;
}
}
}
if (!atLeastOneSelected) {
this.selectChildOptions(child,usePreselected);
}
}
}
// Change all the way down the chain
this.change(child,usePreselected);
}
function DOL_populateChild(dolOption,childSelectObj,usePreselected) {
// If this opton has sub-options, populate the child list with them
if (dolOption!=null && dolOption.options!=null) {
for (var j=0; j<dolOption.options.length; j++) {
var srcOpt = dolOption.options[j];
if (childSelectObj.options==null) { childSelectObj.options = new Array(); }
// Put option into select list
var duplicate = false;
var preSelectedExists = false;
for (var k=0; k<childSelectObj.options.length; k++) {
var csi = childSelectObj.options[k];
if (csi.text==srcOpt.text && csi.value==srcOpt.value) {
duplicate = true;
break;
}
}
if (!duplicate) {
var newopt = new Option(srcOpt.text, srcOpt.value, false, false);
newopt.selected = false; // Again, we have to do these two statements for NN4 to work
newopt.defaultSelected = false;
newopt.DOLOption = srcOpt;
childSelectObj.options[childSelectObj.options.length] = newopt;
}
}
}
}

// Once a child select is populated, go back over it to select options which should be selected
function DOL_selectChildOptions(obj,usePreselected) {
// Look to see if any options are preselected=true. If so, then set then selected if usePreselected=true, otherwise set defaults
var values = this.values[obj.name];
var preselectedExists = false;
if (usePreselected && values!=null && typeof(values)!="undefined") {
for (var i=0; i<obj.options.length; i++) {
var v = obj.options[i].value;
if (v!=null && values[v]!=null && typeof(values[v])!="undefined") {
preselectedExists = true;
break;
}
}
}
// Go back over all the options to do the selection
var atLeastOneSelected = false;
for (var i=0; i<obj.options.length; i++) {
var o = obj.options[i];
if (preselectedExists && o.value!=null && values[o.value]!=null && typeof(values[o.value])!="undefined") {
o.selected = true;
atLeastOneSelected = true;
}
else if (!preselectedExists && o.DOLOption!=null && o.DOLOption.defaultSelected) {
o.selected = true;
atLeastOneSelected = true;
}
else {
o.selected = false;
}
}
// If nothing else was selected, select the first one by default
if (this.selectFirstOption && !atLeastOneSelected && obj.options.length>0) {
obj.options[0].selected = true;
}
else if (!atLeastOneSelected &&  obj.type=="select-one") {
obj.selectedIndex = -1;
}
}