# Observe\_field and IE 8

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observe-field-and-ie-8/182512>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 29, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observe-field-and-ie-8/182512 "2010-01-29T06:12:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observe-field-and-ie-8/182512/1 "2010-01-29T06:12:59Z")

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I want to blame IE 8 because I designed with FF and did not see any  
issue but IE 8 definitely is a problem.

To simplify a fairly complex page…

LAYOUT.HTML.ERB

 \<% yield %\>

LIST.HTML.ERB

 \<%= options = [[@menu\_topic, '']] + ApplicationHelper::CONTENT\_TYPE select("menu", "topic", options) %\>
\<%= observe\_field("menu\_topic", :frequency =\> 1, :update =\> 'content\_area', \*\*OR\*\* :update=\>'container' :with =\> 'menu\_topic', :url =\> {:action =\> 'list'}) %\>

The intent is to change what is displayed in the list view mode by  
selecting a ‘topic’ from the collection list.

With ':update =\> ‘container’ FF worked perfectly but IE 8 first updates  
like FF, then it changes the selection list to ‘null’ and continually  
cycles and sends ‘null’ to the observer and it’s a mess.

With ':update =\> ‘content\_area’ FF loads a second list view inside the  
original list view and that clearly isn’t workable.

I suspect that my issue is that I don’t thoroughly understand what  
‘observe\_field’ is capable of doing or not doing but previous usage  
seemed fairly straight forward but that was rails 1.2.6 and perhaps I  
never tested with IE before.

What is the best way to handle this for all browsers?

Craig

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/observe-field-and-ie-8/182512/2 "2010-01-29T17:47:47Z")

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On Thu, 2010-01-28 at 22:11 -0700, Craig W. wrote:

> selecting a 'topic' from the collection list. seemed fairly straight forward but that was rails 1.2.6 and perhaps I never tested with IE before.
> 
> What is the best way to handle this for all browsers?
> 
> * * *
> 
> changed to partials - all are happy
> 
> Craig
> 
> –  
> This message has been scanned for viruses and  
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is  
> believed to be clean.