JS error in databasejoin.js (onchange js code not run)

[robho]

I'm running fabrik 3.1 on joomla 2.5 and am getting a js error in databasejoin-min.js which prevents me from running the js validation code for the element:
> TypeError: e is undefined

This is the problematic code:

        addNewEventAux: function (action, js) {
                switch (this.options.displayType) {
                case 'dropdown':
                /* falls through */
                default:
                        if (this.element) {
                                this.element.addEvent(action, function (e) {
                                        e.stop();
                                        (typeOf(js) === 'function') ? js.delay(0, this, this) : eval(js);
                                }.bind(this));
                        }
                        break;

e is undefined when trying to run e.stop(). Any ideas? Have you seen this before?

This problem started to happen when I added js validation on the database join element and tried to execute the validation when another element changed value.

Specifically this:
On element X (dropdown element) I run this js code onchange:
$('table___Y').fireEvent('change');

On element Y (database join element) I run this js code onchange:
alert("foo");

Here "alert("foo");" isn't run because of the js error.

(onchange for element Y seems to work well when Y in changed directly. It's only if I manually try to trigger the onchange event that it seems to fail)

 

[robho]

I'm still seeing this. I'm now on Fabrik 3.3.2 and Joomla 3.4.3.

Can I help debug this? I've tried understanding the js code, but I've not yet understood how it all works.

(If I comment "e.stop()" the code runs the onchange event as expected)

 

[robho]

I figured this one out. I need to supply an event object to fireEvent(). Like this:
$('object_name').fireEvent('change', {stop: function(){}})
or
$('object_name').fireEvent('change', new Event.Mock);

This could possibly be handled more transparently by fabrik. I've opened a pull request with a possible improvement for consideration: https://github.com/Fabrik/fabrik/pull/1527

 

[cheesegrits]

I'll probably merge that. We're just kind of used to using Event.Mock, which is why it's part of our framework, as there's quite a few little gotchas in addition to e.stop(), where code relies on having the event object.

Before I merge it, can you check it doesn't affect the CDD element? That extends the databasejoin JS class, and I have a feeling there may be some code in there that needs to see the event type (click, change, etc). Probably won't be affcted by this, but needs to be tested.

-- hugh

 

[robho]

If Event.Mock is the correct way to fix this I'm fine with that and I can drop the pull request. I did see that event objects were used here and there for other elements, but I couldn't easily figure out if and in which context they were used.

I'm not used to JS and don't know mootools so the main problem is probably my lack of knowledge Would a section in the wiki make sense to help clarify how to manually trigger events in a correct way?

Should the fireEvent example in this page be updated? http://fabrikar.com/forums/index.php?wiki/element-javascript/

 

[cheesegrits]

I went ahead and made the changes, in a few more places as well. Should be in github.

-- hugh

 

[robho]

Thanks! I've closed the pull request.

 

[cheesegrits]

Thanks for the effort on this one.

-- hugh