Switching items between listboxes, and letting .net realize it.

[Ryan Ternier]

I have two listboxes, and allow users to move items between them via the
following function:

function SwitchList(fbox, tbox){
var arrFbox = new Array();
var arrTbox = new Array();
var arrLookup = new Array();
var i;
for (i = 0; i < tbox.options.length; i++)
{
arrLookup[tbox.options[i].text] = tbox.options[i].value;
arrTbox[i] = tbox.options[i].text;
}
var fLength = 0;
var tLength = arrTbox.length;
for(i = 0; i < fbox.options.length; i++)
{
arrLookup[fbox.options[i].text] = fbox.options[i].value;
if (fbox.options[i].selected && fbox.options[i].value != "")
{
arrTbox[tLength] = fbox.options[i].text;
tLength++;
}
else
{
arrFbox[fLength] = fbox.options[i].text;
fLength++;
}
}
arrFbox.sort();
arrTbox.sort();
fbox.length = 0;
tbox.length = 0;
var c;
for(c = 0; c < arrFbox.length; c++)
{
var no = new Option();
no.value = arrLookup[arrFbox[c]];
no.text = arrFbox[c];
fbox[c] = no;
}
for(c = 0; c < arrTbox.length; c++)
{
var no = new Option();
no.value = arrLookup[arrTbox[c]];
no.text = arrTbox[c];
tbox[c] = no;
}
}

On the Client, the values do get switched between the listboxes, but
whenever I run my javascript to access these listboxes and retrieve values,
it retrieves ALL values that were initially loaded into it, and not the
current ones.

If anyone could shed some light, it'd be appreciated.

Thank you.

/RT

[John Saunders]

"Ryan Ternier" <rt******@icompasstech.com.spamproof> wrote in message
news:uT**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

I have two listboxes, and allow users to move items between them via the
following function:
<snip>
On the Client, the values do get switched between the listboxes, but
whenever I run my javascript to access these listboxes and retrieve values, it retrieves ALL values that were initially loaded into it, and not the
current ones.

If anyone could shed some light, it'd be appreciated.

Your question is basically, "why doesn't the server know what happened on
the client?" The answer is, "because the server is not the client".

The only information which the server can know about the client is
information which the client sends to the server. This information could be
in a cookie, a URL query string, or in form POST data.

In your example, I don't see any information being sent to the server, so
the server won't know anything about it.

You might want to use hidden fields to represent the data in the listboxes,
one hidden field per listbox. The hidden fields could contain a
comma-separated list of the items in the corresponding listbox. On the
client, when an item is moved from one listbox to another, you would use
JavaScript to remove one item from the origin hidden field and add it to the
destination hidden field. The server would then be able to look in the
hidden fields to see the current state.
--
John Saunders
johnwsaundersiii at hotmail