How do you handle a form change in jQuery?

Question

In jQuery, is there a simple way to test if ANY of a form\'s elements have changed?

EDIT: I should have added that I only need to check on a c

Answer 1

$('form[name="your_form_name"] input, form[name="your_form_name"] select').click(function() {
  $("#result").html($(this).val());
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h2>Form "your_form_name"</h2>
<form name="your_form_name">
  <input type="text" name="one_a" id="one_a" value="AAAAAAAA" />
  <input type="text" name="one_b" id="one_b" value="BBBBBBBB" />
  <input type="text" name="one_c" id="one_c" value="CCCCCCCC" />
  <select name="one_d">
    <option value="111111">111111</option>
    <option value="222222">222222</option>
    <option value="333333">333333</option>
  </select>
</form>
<hr/>
<h2>Form "your_other_form_name"</h2>
<form name="your_other_form_name">
  <input type="text" name="two_a" id="two_a" value="DDDDDDDD" />
  <input type="text" name="two_b" id="two_b" value="EEEEEEEE" />
  <input type="text" name="two_c" id="two_c" value="FFFFFFFF" />
  <input type="text" name="two_d" id="two_d" value="GGGGGGGG" />
  <input type="text" name="two_e" id="two_f" value="HHHHHHHH" />
  <input type="text" name="two_f" id="two_e" value="IIIIIIII" />
  <select name="two_g">
    <option value="444444">444444</option>
    <option value="555555">555555</option>
    <option value="666666">666666</option>
  </select>
</form>
<h2>Result</h2>
<div id="result">
  <h2>Click on a field..</h2>
</div>

In addition to above @JoeD's answer.

If you want to target fields in a particular form (assuming there are more than one forms) than just fields, you can use the following code:

$('form[name="your_form_name"] input, form[name="your_form_name"] select').click(function() {
    // A form element was clicked
});

Answer 2

Looking at the updated question try something like

$('input, textarea, select').each(function(){
    $(this).data("val", $(this).val());
});
$('#button').click(function() {
    $('input, textarea, select').each(function(){
        if($(this).data("val")!==$(this).val()) alert("Things Changed");
    });
});

For the original question use something like

$('input').change(function() {
    alert("Things have changed!");
});

Answer 3

Here is an elegant solution.

There is hidden property for each input element on the form that you can use to determine whether or not the value was changed. Each type of input has it's own property name. For example

• for text/textarea it's defaultValue
• for select it's defaultSelect
• for checkbox/radio it's defaultChecked

Here is the example.

function bindFormChange($form) {

  function touchButtons() {
    var
      changed_objects = [],
      $observable_buttons = $form.find('input[type="submit"], button[type="submit"], button[data-object="reset-form"]');

    changed_objects = $('input:text, input:checkbox, input:radio, textarea, select', $form).map(function () {
      var
        $input = $(this),
        changed = false;

      if ($input.is('input:text') || $input.is('textarea') ) {
        changed = (($input).prop('defaultValue') != $input.val());
      }
      if (!changed && $input.is('select') ) {
        changed = !$('option:selected', $input).prop('defaultSelected');
      }
      if (!changed && $input.is('input:checkbox') || $input.is('input:radio') ) {
        changed = (($input).prop('defaultChecked') != $input.is(':checked'));
      }
      if (changed) {
        return $input.attr('id');
      }

    }).toArray();

    if (changed_objects.length) {
      $observable_buttons.removeAttr('disabled')   
    } else {
      $observable_buttons.attr('disabled', 'disabled');
    }
  };
  touchButtons();

  $('input, textarea, select', $form).each(function () {
    var $input = $(this);

    $input.on('keyup change', function () {
      touchButtons();
    });
  });

};

Now just loop thru the forms on the page and you should see submit buttons disabled by default and they will be activated ONLY if you indeed will change some input value on the form.

$('form').each(function () {
    bindFormChange($(this));
});

Implementation as a jQuery plugin is here https://github.com/kulbida/jmodifiable

Answer 4

If you want to check if the form data, as it is going to be sent to the server, have changed, you can serialize the form data on page load and compare it to the current form data:

$(function() {

    var form_original_data = $("#myform").serialize(); 

    $("#mybutton").click(function() {
        if ($("#myform").serialize() != form_original_data) {
            // Something changed
        }
    });

});

Answer 5

A real time and simple solution:

$('form').on('keyup change paste', 'input, select, textarea', function(){
    console.log('Form changed!');
});

Answer 6

Extending Udi's answer, this only checks on form submission, not on every input change.

$(document).ready( function () {
  var form_data = $('#myform').serialize();
  $('#myform').submit(function () {
      if ( form_data == $(this).serialize() ) {
        alert('no change');
      } else {
        alert('change');
      }
   });
});