javascript - Detect an indirect update to a field with jQuery

Question

I have a <textarea> that is getting updated from a form with jquery. I might never actually enter anything into the textarea directly.

But I need to know how I can monitor changes to the textarea that aren't directly from direct input on the textarea?

I can use

$('#myTextbox').on('input', function() {
    // do something
});

to know when the user is editing the myTextbox.

I tried

$('#myTextbox').on('change', function () {
  // do something
});

but that didn't work either.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can try using interval or timeout like this

var searchValue = $('#myTextbox').val();

function checkSearchChanged() {
    var currentValue = $('#myTextbox').val();
    if ((currentValue) && currentValue != searchValue && currentValue != '') {
        searchValue = $('#myTextbox').val();
       console.log(searchValue)
    }
    setTimeout(checkSearchChanged, 0.1);
}

$(function () {
    setTimeout(checkSearchChanged, 0.1);
});

checkout working plunker here