Hi there! Since June I’m officially a Software Developer (yeah!). I’m not the “Front End like” kind of person (if there is any), but actually I’m working as a Full Stack Web Developer. I’m used to work with databases and Backend languages, so when I first accepted this job I was very surprised to have been chosen.
Today I’m very demotivated. I was asked to do a very simple (Front End) task, but I get stucked all the time. Sometimes I don’t even know why (even if I google the issue). I read all kind of tutorials about JS and JQuery, but the more I read, the more I feel confused and discouraged. I mean, I can understand the syntax, but when it comes to DOM manipulation, unless it’s a very basic thing, I really don’t know what to do.
Moreover, as I’m using Windows instead of Linux (which I miss so bad), I feel too far away from my comfort zone. I was used to work with the terminal all the time, using almost no user interface.
What should I do?
I’m sorry you’re feeling frustrated. Do you have anyone on your team you can ask for help? I assume your employer knew what your competencies were going in, so they should be open to helping you where you lack. I’m sure we could help you here, too if you can put your issue in general terms that won’t violate any company policies
Thank you ChadKreutzer! I’m asking for help. My collegues are really kind, but sometimes I’m afraid to ask dumb questions… My question remain this one: http://forum.freecodecamp.com/t/build-search-engine-which-dynamically-displays-content-javascript-or-jquery/8655 . Unfortunally I can’t use JQuery autocomplete, because I need to customize the form and my collegue told me that they don’t use such tools.
I have (at least) 2 main questions:
- How I write in html a dropdown menu (with options) that take also a custom input from the user? I found this solution, but I don’t know if it is the best one:
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-This leads me to a further question: using this (or other html code), how can I select more than one element? e.g. I want to write as input “Volvo OR Saab OR Mercedes” and be suggested a name at the end of each " OR ".
I think a dropdown would not be the best thing to use. I would suggest checkboxes instead. You could probably also do something fancier with some kind of buttons but that is too involved for me to even begin to think about.
As for custom input, there again dropdowns don’t really account for this type of interaction from the user. You could have a textbox for the user to type into, but you can’t expect users to know the exact syntax which will bring them the data they desire.
So checkboxes remain the best basic choice. (If that’s too ugly, i think you can remove the actual checkbox and just click on the name of the item, then style it so it’s obviously selected. I’m not sure how to do that but i feel like that’s possible with CSS.)
Here’s something to play with. I didn’t want to go too much further without more feedback.
Thank you transmothra! This sounds a reasonable solution to me. A collegue of mine suggested:
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- Volvo
- Saab
- Mercedes
- Audi
and than edit through CSS to make it look nicer. To add more than one option at the same time we wrote a function in JQuery that let the menu be displayed again after a white space + pressing enter key.
Thank you bnoden! It’s kind of similar to what I need, but I also need to let the user to select more than one option at the same time and display the result in the input form.
In this updated version, add car name to availableCars array (line 7) and it will instantly be added to dropdown list and recognized by the system. Also, you can select any number of cars.
PS. This is as much about learning as it is about helping, so don’t feel bad if you go another direction.
very usefull ! Thank you bnoden! 
Well… It is difficult because normally I’m not allowed to install new software unless it has benn approved by one of my collegues from another department…