jQuery clone problem

Question

I am trying to clone a div and change the names of the input fields in this div. It works great for most of the browsers but IE 7 does not change the name attribute of the i

Answer 1

try this ( raw code)

$(some_cloned_element).each(function(i, elem){
    var newName = "yay_i_love_my_new_name";
    if ($.browser.msie === true){ // evil browser sniffing *cries*
        $(elem).replaceWith(document.createElement(
            this.outerHTML.replace(/name=\w+/ig, 'name='+newName+'_'+i)
        ));
    } else {
        $(elem).attr('name',newName+'_'+i);
    }
    $("body").append(some_cloned_element);
});

check when i=50 and then break/exit

better way : use name as array like name=picture[]

Refernece

Answer 2

If you pan on accessing these as a set when the form is posted then there is no need to change the name - just dont put a value within the brackets and it will be incremented for you when you grab the array on the server side:

<input name="test[]" />

If you need to be able to access each one by index from js you can just use get on the appropriate collection returned by a selector. Or you can assign ID attributes like test_1.

Answer 3

The simple solution for Radio button is :

$("div:last").find("radio").each(function(){
     var name="someNewName";
     var id="someNewId";
    if (!$.browser.msie || parseInt($.browser.version) > 7) {
      this.name = name;
      this.id=id;
    }
    else {
      (this).attr("outerHTML", "<input type=radio id=" + id + " name=" + name + " />");  
    }
});

This will alter the outerHTML of the element so that the HTML for the element(radio button) is overwritten. The same solution can be applied for : find("input") / find("checkbox") for the other controls too.

Answer 4

I could fix it for now. As long as an input field is not attached to the dom you can change the name and the radio buttons work properly again.

// Old Code
 $("div:last").clone(true).children("input").attr("name","newName");

// New Code
 $("div:last").clone(true).children("input").fixCloneBug ("newName");

To lower the execution time only the jQuery Events, the className and the type attribute are copied.

fixCloneBug Method:

(function( $ )
{


    if ( ! $.browser.msie || parseInt( $.browser.version ) > 7 )
        // NO FIX FOR IE 7+ FF WEBKIT
        $.fn.fixCloneBug = function( newName ){ return this.attr( "name", newName ) };
    else
        // FIX IE 5-7
        $.fn.fixCloneBug = function( newName )
        {
            var $cloned = $();

            this.each(function( )
            {
                    /* -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._

                       Create a new element with className and jQuery events of the buggy element

                    */          

                    var     $elem    = $(this),

                            $newElem = $(document.createElement( $elem.attr('tagName') ));

                            // USE SAME TYPE

                    $newElem.attr('type', $elem.attr('type') );


                            // SET NAME
                    $newElem.attr('name', this.name );
                    $newElem.attr('name', newName );

                            // ADD TO DOM

                    $newElem.insertBefore( $elem );

                            // CLONE EVENTS
                    $newElem.data( "events", $elem.data("events") );

                            // CLASS NAME
                    $newElem.attr('className', this.className );

                    /* -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._

                       Delete buggy element 

                    */

                    $elem.remove();


                    // Add to result
                    $cloned.push($newElem);
            })

            return $cloned;

        }

}(jQuery));

Maybe you think $newElem.attr('name', this.name ); is useless however it allows me to use a jQuery 1.4 feature:

.fixCloneBug (function(i,oldname){ return oldname+"_new" })