Input inside Fancybox

Question

I have a very strange problem with Fancybox.

I can't seem to get the .val() of the inputs which are displayed in Fancybox. They have a value of "". The inputs outside of Fancybox, however work.

My code:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
$('a#inline').fancybox({
'hideOnContentClick': false,
'frameWidth': 500,
'frameHeight': $('#avatars').height(),
'callbackOnShow':
function() {

 $('#gallery div img').click(function(){
  $('#inline img').attr('src', $(this).attr('class'));
  $('input#avatar').attr('value', $(this).attr('class'));
 });

 $('button').click(function(){

  console.log($('input#search_avatar'));

  return false;
 });
 }
 });
 });

And the HTML:

<fieldset>
<div id="avatars" style="float:left; width:500px; display:none;">
<form method="post" action="">
 <fieldset>
  <input type="text" name="search_avatar" id="search_avatar" />
  <button id="search_avatar_submit">Filter</button>
 </fieldset>
 <div id="gallery">
  <div><img src="2_s.jpg" class="2_s.jpg" /></div>
 </div>
</form>
</div>
<a id="inline" href="#avatars"><img id="avatar" src="file.png" /></a>

<input type="hidden" name="avatar" value="" id="avatar" />
</fieldset>

So basically. I click on the link. The Fancybox shows up. I add text in the input (this is text), When I click the i will get this (in Firebug):

[input#search_avatar, input#search_avatar This is text]

When i execute this:

$('#search_avatar').val()

I get:

""

Thanks!

Answer 1

This works like a charm, using jQuery live events: http://docs.jquery.com/Events/live

$("#fancy_div #yourbuttonId").live("click", function(){
    console.log($("#fancy_div #fieldId").val());
    return(false);
});

Answer 2

Fancybox creates a copy of all elements you're going to display and places them into a separate layer. In result, there are two input elements, the original one, and the one you're changing in a Fancybox window.

Here is the image with a visual explanation.

So when you're trying to access "search_avatar" input value using this code:

$('#search_avatar').val()

jQuery returns an empty string because:

1. It selects all elements with id=search_avatar (there are two elements in the tree. actually this is a bad idea to have two elements with the same id, so you may think of using classes instead of ids.);
2. It returns a value of the first input within selector criteria (which is your first input element with empty value).

To get a value of input element that is located in a Fancybox window you can simply extend jQuery expression:

$('div#fancy_div input#search_avatar')

So, instead of this:

$('button').click(function(){

 console.log($('input#search_avatar'));

 return false;
});

You may try the following code:

$('button#search_avatar_submit').click(function() {
 var searchAvatar = $('div#fancy_div input#search_avatar');
 console.log(searchAvatar, searchAvatar.val());
 return false;
});

Hope this makes sense and will help you.