Text field magic?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I have a text field. It starts with an initial value from the database. If it changes, I save it to the database. This works via observe_field. The field cannot be blank, so if someone deletes the contents of the field, I don't save that value.

However, I also want to reset the field to the previous value (initial value or previously saved value) and not leave it blank.

I have code to do this once. But if the field is emptied a second time, I cannot get the handler to refresh the field.

Any ideas why it does not work the second time? Or perhaps it is working but putting in a null value?

            <%= observe_field(                  field,                 :url => { :action => 'update'},                 :update => 'message',                 :with => field,                 :condition => "check(this)"               )             %>             <%= observe_field(                  field,                 :with => field,                 :function => "refresh(this)"               )             %>

function check( input ) {   var v = trim( input.getValue() );

  if (! v ) {     return false;   }

  return true; }

function refresh( input ) {   input.element.value = input.element.lastValue;   input.element.visualEffect( "highlight",     {duration: 2.5, queue: 'end'} ); }

2

The problem seems to occur because the onchange handler does not fire. Even though I set the field value back, the value is not "sticking," so the field thinks it contains a blank. Hence, when I select the text and blank it again, no change, because blank = blank.

What do I need to do to properly reset the field back to a value so the second blank differs from what's there?