Detect any change in an EditForm

[Alexander Bautz]

I got a request for a snippet that detects any change in an EditForm, but cannot remember if it was in the forum or by email… – in any case, here it is.

Put this in your EditForm Custom JS:

var formLoadState = {};

function dffs_ready() {
    setTimeout(function() {
        jQuery.each(spjs.dffs.fieldtype, function(fin, type) {
            var val = getFieldValue(fin);
            if ((type === "SPFieldNote" || type === "SPFieldHTML") && val.indexOf("<p>") > -1) {
                val = jQuery(val).text();
            }
            formLoadState[fin] = val;
        });
    }, 500);
}

function dffs_PreSaveAction() {
    var formSaveState = [],
        changed = false,
        cArr = [];
    jQuery.each(spjs.dffs.fieldtype, function(fin, type) {
        var val = getFieldValue(fin);
        if ((type === "SPFieldNote" || type === "SPFieldHTML") && val.indexOf("<p>") > -1) {
            val = jQuery(val).text();
        }
        if (String(val) !== String(formLoadState[fin])) {
            changed = true;
            cArr.push(spjs.dffs.fieldData[fin].disp);
        }
    });
    if (changed) {
        // Form is changed - do something? - the alert is just an example
        spjs.dffs.alert({
            "title": "These fields have changed",
            "msg": cArr.join("<br>")
        });
    } else {
        // Form is not changed
    }
    return true;
}

This will collect all the form field values when the form loads, and then compare it with the current value when the user tries to save the form – alerting in case of any change.

In the case of a field change, you could for example set another field value before save.

I Hope someone finds this useful.

Alexander

[Amal Vellappillil]

Hi Alex,

Thank you so much for the snippet.
Just out of curiosity. What is the difference between the way you have it vs comparing between beforeProperties and getFieldValue?

spjs.dffs.beforeProperties[fin] !== getFieldValue(fin)

-Amal Vellappillil

[Alexander Bautz]

Comparing like you suggest is mostly the same, but beforeProperties changes some of the values (for people pickers, taxonomy fields, lookups and some date fields) – also the comparison of “SPFieldNote” and “SPFieldHTML” needs a bit more. And also, the loading is deferred 500 milliseconds to ensure for example people pickers are fully rendered before the script fires.

Alexander

[Amal Vellappillil]

Thank you for taking the time to explain the difference.

[William Ellis]

I have tried this alert code, but the alert message flashes for a split second and disappears, saving the changes. Anyone else had this issue?

[Alexander Bautz]

The alert is just an example in the code and will not stop the save. What are you trying to do?

Alexander

[Author]

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