Select box choice resetting

Question

I have a drop-down box that I am using to control the sorting
of my dataset. The drop-down box is located in a spry region
because I want to display different sorting choices depending on a
javascript variable. I have it scripted so that the dataset.sort()
function is called by the drop-down box's onChange handler. It
works great for the sorting - the only problem is that the
drop-down box always reverts back to the first <option> as
soon as the sort() method is called and I would prefer to have it
remain on the last selected index. I know I could probably rig
something complicated in JavaScript involving observer objects and
dynamically building the select options, but before I went down
that road, I was wondering if anyone knew how to get the
<select> box from reverting first?
I attached a quick sample of what I'm talking about below:
<td spry:region="dsPlans" class="SpryHiddenRegion">
<span spry:choose="spry:choose">
<!--- When selected, this select box always resets to
whatever the first option is --->
<select name="sSortBy" spry:when="var1 == 'value1'"
onChange="dsPlans.sort(this.value,'toggle');">
<option value="Field1">Field1</option>
<option value="Field2">Field2</option>
<option value="Field3">Field3</option>
</select>
<select name="sSortBy" spry:when="var1 == 'value2'"
onChange="dsPlans.sort(this.value,'toggle');">
<option value="Field4">Field4</option>
<option value="Field5">Field5</option>
<option value="Field6">Field6</option>
</select>
<select name="sSortBy" spry:default="spry:default"
onChange="dsPlans.sort(this.value,'toggle');">
<option value="Field7">Field7</option>
<option value="Field8">Field8</option>
<option value="Field9">Field9</option>
</select>
</span>
</td>
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Michael,
The cleanest way is to use observers as you suggest.
onPreUpdate, store the selected index of the select, and then
onPostUpdate, restore it. Something like:
var savedIndex = 0;
dsPlans.addObserver(function(noticationType, notifier, data)
if (notificationType == "onPreUpdate" &&
document.forms[ 0 ] && document.forms[ 0 ].sSortBy)
savedIndex = document.forms[0].sSortBy.selectedIndex;
else if (notificationType == "onPostUpdate")
document.forms[ 0 ].sSortBy.selectedIndex = savedIndex;
You'd probably also want some logic that resets this
savedIndex whenever your var1 changes too.
--== Kin ==--