Doubtful this needs much explaining but I think I need a second set of eyes to check this out because I just cannot fathom why it won't! Try using the "Energy Calculator" and no value will be returned when submitted despite me approaching it in the same way as the "Battery Charge Calculator" which does work.

Link: /

Doubtful this needs much explaining but I think I need a second set of eyes to check this out because I just cannot fathom why it won't! Try using the "Energy Calculator" and no value will be returned when submitted despite me approaching it in the same way as the "Battery Charge Calculator" which does work.

Link: http://jsfiddle.net/Deva/426Jj/

• javascript
• html
• innerhtml
• getelementbyid

• If you are using jQuery in other parts of the page couldn't you use jQuery in this part also? – James Khoury Commented May 12, 2011 at 3:03

5 Answers 5

To elaborate on @alex's answer, you have selected the onLoad option of jsFiddle, which places your JavaScript code inside of an anonymous function:

window.onload = function() {
    function energyCalc() {
        var mass = document.forms['0'].mass.value;
        var finalMass = mass * 1000;
        var velocity = document.forms['0'].velocity.value;
        var finalVelocity = velocity * 0.3048;
        var energy = (0.5 * (finalMass * (finalVelocity * finalVelocity)));
        if ((mass && velocity) != '') {
            document.getElementById("energy").innerHTML = 'Energy of weapon: ' + energy + ' Joules';
        } else {
            document.getElementById("energy").innerHTML = 'You must enter values in both fields!';
        }
    }
}

Try this on for size: http://jsfiddle.net/mattball/Cbsa8/. All I did was select no wrap (head) and No library.

Keep in mind that it's better coding practice to write unobtrusive JavaScript. In this case you'd bind the event handler with JavaScript, using attachEvent (for IE <9) or addEventListener (for real browsers).

Edit re: OP edits

Open a console and the problem is immediately obvious after trying to use the Energy Calculator:

> Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'value' of undefined (fiddle.jshell.net:100)

which is this line:

var mass = document.forms['0'].mass.value;

You're accessing the wrong form. You need to change all cases of forms['0'] to forms[1] in the energy calculator's code. Note the omitted quotes, by the way - document.forms is an array, not an object!

Also, you're clearly using jQuery, but you're not using it everywhere you could. Why not? There's a lot of room for improvement in your code. It's cleanup time!

HTML

<div id="main">
    <a href="#"><h3>Battery Charge Calculator</h3></a>
    <div class="slide">
        <form id="batteryForm" action="">
            <p>
                Battery Capacity (mah):
            </p>
            <p>
                <input name="capacity"/>
            </p>
            <p>
                Charge Rate (mA):
            </p>
            <p>
                <input name="rate"/>
            </p>
            <p>
                <input type="submit" value="Submit"/>
            </p>
            <br/>
            <p id="time"/>
        </form>
    </div>
    <a href="#"><h3>Energy Calculator</h3></a>
    <div class="slide">
        <form id="energyForm" action="">
            <p>
                Mass of BB (grammes):
            </p>
            <p>
                <input name="mass"/>
            </p>
            <p>
                Power of weapon (FPS):
            </p>
            <p>
                <input name="velocity"/>
            </p>
            <p>
                <input type="submit" value="Submit"/>
            </p>
            <br/>
            <p id="energy"/>
        </form>
    </div>
</div>

JavaScript

$(function() {
    $('#main > a > h3').click(function() {
        $(this).closest('a').next('div.slide').animate({
            height: 'toggle'
        }, 750);
    });

    function batteryCalc() {
        var capacity = this.capacity.value,
            rate = this.rate.value,
            time = capacity / (rate / 1.2),
            chargeTime = (Math.round(10 * time) / 10).toFixed(1),
            message = 'You must enter values in both fields!';

        if (capacity && rate) {
            message = 'Required time on charge: ' + chargeTime + ' hours';
        }

        $('#time').html(message);
        return false;
    }

    function energyCalc() {
        var mass = this.mass.value,
            finalMass = mass * 1000,
            velocity = this.velocity.value,
            finalVelocity = velocity * 0.3048,
            energy = (0.5 * (finalMass * (finalVelocity * finalVelocity))).toFixed(1),
            message = 'You must enter values in both fields!';

        if (mass && velocity) {
            message = 'Energy of weapon: ' + energy + ' Joules';
        }

        $('#energy').html(message);
        return false;
    }


    $('#batteryForm').submit(batteryCalc);
    $('#energyForm').submit(energyCalc);
});

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/mattball/JSpaU/

See the drop-down list on the left that says "onLoad"? Change it to "no wrap (head)" and it'll work.

It's because of the way jsfiddle works. You need to declare the energyCalc function like so:

window.energyCalc = function() { ... }

energyCalc() is wrapped in a function (load event's function), and is not visible to the global scope.

It works when it is made global.

jsFiddle.

Remove the action = "javascript:energyCalc()"

and add:

jQuery(document).ready(function()
{
    jQuery(document.forms[0]).submit(energyCalc);
});

No jquery

<form method="post" onsubmit="energyCalc();" >

EDIT

Also need return values (true or false)

Check out: http://jsfiddle.net/SabAH/7/ http://jsfiddle.net/SabAH/11/

UPDATE an explanation:

The action attribute tells the browser where to post to. The function needs to be run onsubmit.

UPDATE2 After looking at the new jsfiddle

http://jsfiddle.net/426Jj/2/

There were a few errors. Firstly your action="javascript:..." needs to be onsubmit="javascript: return ..." and remove the onclick of the submit buttons the energy method needed to reference forms[1] not forms[0] becasue it was the second form. Thats mainly it.

look at: http://jsfiddle.net/426Jj/2/