Hiding a table column and its contents yet reading the values

Question

Hi all,
hope someone can help as i urgently need a solution for this although its probably more of a javascript and html forms question than a JSP - but i couldnt find a good javascript forum - if any one has come across a good JS and HTML - i would appreciate if you would let me have a url for it - in the meantime as i need this urgentely and most JS sites that i have visted and posted on seem to be useless, i havent got a reply back yet , and since i've always found java sun forum good and helpful thought would post it here - hope no one minds it too much . Thanks in advance for any help with resolving my urgent problem.
overview of question:
I need to, using an onclick() event read the contents of the 4th cell in the clicked row and set the value of a hidden element � (not sure what element to use here attribute tag? Or some other - but basically, this needs to also be hidden, as I�m going to use this as one of the parameters to send through as part of the form - )
explanation of question
So when I do :-
<td><netui:label value="{container.item.TELECARERID}"/></td> And using javascript :-
row.cells[4].innerText;I can read the value and print it to screen as :-
alert('row.cells[4].innerText)) = ' + row.cells[4].innerText);although at this stage I�m not sure how to now set this value to an element in the form so that I can include this value as part of the submit action of the form.
However when I do the following, which is closer to what I�m trying to achieve (ie hide the 4th column of the table and its values � but when I just hide the value as in:-
<td><netui:hidden dataInput="{container.item.TELECARERID}" dataSource="" /></td> I can�t use the above (row.cells[4].innerText;), javascript syntax to get to the value although the value is still in the viewsource of the html page.
How can I hide this forth column of the table yet get the values of the 4th column and also set it to some element of the form so that it can be submitted with the date range as part of a criteria to search against by the backend server.
the full code (well... relevant parts)
Here is all the code:
<table id="table1" class="tablebody" border="1">
        <tbody>
         <tr>
           <th><rpb:columnHeader field="FIRSTNAME"><i18n:getMessage messageName="first_name"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>
           <th><rpb:columnHeader field="LASTNAME"><i18n:getMessage messageName="last_name"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>
          <th><rpb:columnHeader field="LOGONNAME"><i18n:getMessage messageName="logon_name"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>
          <th><rpb:columnHeader field="TEAM"><i18n:getMessage messageName="team"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>
           <th><rpb:columnHeader field="TELECARERID"><i18n:getMessage messageName="telecarer_id"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>
        </tr>
       </netui-data:repeaterHeader>
       <netui-data:repeaterItem>
        <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF" onMouseOver="this.bgColor='gold';" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF';" onclick="selectTeleCarer(this)">
        <td><netui:label  value="{container.item.FIRSTNAME}"/></td>
          <td><netui:label value="{container.item.LASTNAME}"/></td>
         <td><netui:label  value="{container.item.LOGONNAME}"/></td>
       <td><netui:label  value="{container.item.TEAM}"/></td> 
        <td><netui:label value="{container.item.TELECARERID}"/></td>
       </tr>
      </tbody>///////and then I�m trying to using the below sepertaely printed javascript set it to the below hidden attribute so that it can be submitted as part of the form
<netui:hidden tagId="teleCarerId" dataSource="{actionForm.teleCarerId}" dataInput=""/>
                             <div>
                         <i18n:getMessage messageName="created_between"/>
                            <netui:textBox tagId="data" dataSource="{actionForm.fromDate}"/>
                            <button id="trigger" onclick="jscalendar/calendar.js">...</button>
                           <i18n:getMessage messageName="and"/>
                            <netui:textBox tagId="data1" dataSource="{actionForm.toDate}"/>
                            <button id="trigger2" onclick="jscalendar/calendar.js">...</button>
                        </div>
                <br />
                <netui:button value="Submit" type="submit"/>
            </netui:form>/// the java script is :-
function selectTeleCarer(row)
    if ( row.style ) {
row.style.backgroundColor = ('gold' == row.style.backgroundColor)?
'white' : 'gold';
//document.form.teleCarerId.value = row.cells[4].innerText;
alert('row.cells[4].innerText)) = ' + row.cells[4].innerText);
}

Answer 1

thanks for the reply,
but i cant use just html like <input type hidden > as i'm using the struts like framework with the netui tags in weblogic where i need to link the tag value to the form bean to be passed to the server . thus i need to use the netui tag , which doesnt have a name but a tagId instead, so i'm using it like this :
<netui:hidden tagId="teleCarerId" dataSource="{actionForm.teleCarerId}" dataInput=""/>and then in javascrpit doing:
//document.form.teleCarerId.value = row.cells[4].innerText;but thats not my problem ()as it probably will work and its only an issue after i resolve the first part of my question:-
which is how do i hide a cloumn in a table and its values so that when the user selects a row i can pass the hidden value of row as part of my form .
as i mentioned before when i make the cloumn visible as in
  <th><rpb:columnHeader field="TELECARERID"><i18n:getMessage messageName="telecarer_id"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>and give it a visible value:
  <td><netui:label value="{container.item.TELECARERID}"/></td>
       </tr>i can pick up the value fine using the javascript syntax:
row.cells[4].innerText;however when i hide only the value - which is only part of what i want to do as i want to also hide the column heading so that this part of the table isnt seen- as in:-
<td><netui:hidden dataInput="{container.item.TELECARERID}" dataSource="" /></td>then i cant use
row.cells[4].innerText;to pick up the value although it does hide the value and in viewsourec the value is there - is there some other syntax that i should be using here - and also how can i hide the cloumn heading so that the table looks asthtically good on the browser?
ie. what should i change this line of code to?
  <th><rpb:columnHeader field="TELECARERID"><i18n:getMessage messageName="telecarer_id"/></rpb:columnHeader></th>thanks in advance for any help.