Find out if html form has changed

Question

Using jquery I\'ve added a change handler to a form. This works when any input is changed BUT only if the user manually changes an input and not when some other code changes

Answer 1

Serializing the form is certainly an option, but it will not work if:

• you want to know which fields have changed
• it only needs to check a subset of the fields
• dynamically adding or removing fields.

Fortunately, every form element has a default value associated with its object:

• input, textarea : defaultValue
• checkbox, radio : defaultChecked
• select: defaultSelected

for ex: to ckeck if input or textarea has changed:

var changed = false;
$(":text,textarea").each(function(){
    changed = this.value != this.defaultValue;
    return !changed; // return if at least one control has changed value
});