Referencing Form Fields in JavaScript

JavaScript is a powerful language that can do many things. But one of it's most common uses is to dynamically modify the behavior of Forms, using Form Scripting and Field Scripting.

Referencing the Current Form

In the HTML document object model (DOM), the current form is named _sdForm.
This line of code gets a reference to it and puts it in the form variable:

var form = _sdForm;

Accessing Fields in the Current Form

To find the name of a field in the platform:

1. Go to > Customization > Objects > {object} > Fields
2. Find the label of the field you're interested in
3. Get its name from the Field Name column
   That name can then be used in the JavaScript code.

All fields can be accessed using the platform's JavaScript functions, as described in the Field Types section below. The most commonly accessed field types (TextField, TextArea, Date, DateTime, Time, and URL) can also be accessed using _sdForm[0]. For example, this line of code gets a reference to the first_name field, and puts it in the variable fName_field:

var fName_field = _sdForm[0].first_name;

Fields have two properties that you can access in JavaScript:

• name: the name of the field
• value: the value of the field

So this line retrieves the value of the field:

var fName = fName_field.value;

As does this longer version:

var fName = _sdForm[0].first_name.value;

Other fields can be accessed using the platform's JavaScript functions.
For a complete list, see the Field Types section below.

Updating Fields in the Current Form

The method used to update a field depends on the field type. All of the methods have the general form:

set...Value(_sdForm, field, value);

Here are examples of some common methods:

setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, ”first_name”, ”Adam”);

setPickListValue(_sdForm, ”first_name”, ”Adam”);

setMultiPickListValue(_sdForm, ”first_name”, [”new”,”closed”]); 
    // value is an array of strings

setRadioButtonValue(_sdForm, ”first_name”, ”Adam”);

setCheckboxState(_sdForm, ”first_name”, true);  // checked
setCheckboxState(_sdForm, ”first_name”, false); // unchecked

setLookupValue(_sdForm, "project_number", "123456", "My Project");
    // where 123456 is the record ID of the target record 
    // "My Project" is the value of the record locator field(s) for that record

For a complete list, see the Field Type Reference section that follows

Field Type Reference

The following table shows how to access and update the different field types, where:

• _sdForm is the variable that references the current form
• field is a string containing the name of the field
• value is a value you specify (generally a string)
• value is language keyword, typed exactly as shown--as in this line,
  for example, which gets the value from a field called email_address:

_sdForm.email_address.value

Type	Getter	Setter
Auto Number	n/a	n/a
Checkbox	getCheckBoxState(_sdForm, field) Returns: true or false	setCheckboxState(_sdForm, field, state) state: true or false Example: setCheckboxState(_sdForm, ”item_approved”, true);
Currency	getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Custom Control	n/a	n/a
Date	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Datetime	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Dependent Picklist	getPickListSelectedValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: selected String containing value	setPickListValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Email Address	getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
File	n/a	n/a
Formula	n/a	n/a
Global Picklist	getPickListSelectedValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: selected String containing value	setPickListValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Image	n/a	n/a
Lookup	getLookupFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing record ID getLookupFieldText(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing the displayed text	setLookupValue(_sdForm, field, value, text) value: String containing record ID text: String containing the text to display
Multiple Checkboxes	getMultiCheckBoxValue(_sdForm, field, index) index: 0 for the first checkbox,       1 for the second, and so on. Returns: An array of values for all checked boxes	setMultiCheckBoxValue(form, field, [value1, ...]) Argument: Array of values to set Example: setMultiCheckBoxValue(_sdForm, field, ["A", "B"]) (Checkboxes for all other values are turned off)
Multi Object Lookup	n/a	n/a
Multi Select Picklist	getMultiPickListSelectedValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: Array of strings, with selected values Example: ["A", "C"]	setMultiPickListValue(_sdForm, field, [value1, ...]) Argument: Array of values to select Example: setMultiPickListValue(_sdForm, field, ["A", "B"] )
Number	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value, or a number
Number with decimals	sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value, or a float
Percentage	sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Phone/Fax	sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
Picklist	getPickListSelectedValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: selected String containing value	setPickListValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value Example: setPickListValue(_sdForm, ”status”, ”Closed”);
Radio Buttons	getRadioButtonValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing selected value	setRadioButtonValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value to select Example: setRadioButtonValue(_sdForm, ”color”, ”Black”);
Rich Text Area	n/a	n/a
TextArea	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
TextField	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value Example: setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, ”first_name”, ”Adam”);
Time	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value
URL	_sdForm[0].fieldname.value -or- getTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field) Returns: String containing value	setTextFieldValue(_sdForm, field, value) value: String containing new value