Getting IE6 to auto-select an item in a dropdown [jQuery]

[Mr. Wilson]

On this page (just a demo) I can’t get IE6 to auto-select the first item
in the dynamically-generated drop-down menus. Well, that isn’t entirely
true. Sometimes it works properly, but never on the first try. When it
fails, the error message it gives is:

"Cannot set the selected property. Unspecified error."

FF2, IE7, and OP9 all behave as expected. I have tried a variety of
workarounds to no avail. I don't have an exhaustive list of everything I
have tried, but it seems like I have tried a hundred ways of setting the
"selected" attribute.

The page uses jQuery 1.1.2. Currently the page is using...

$("#select-how option:first-child").attr("selected","selected");

....to auto-select the first item in the list.

Can anybody offer me some clues?

--Mr. Wilson

 

[RobG]

On this page (just a demo) I can't get IE6 to auto-select the first item
in the dynamically-generated drop-down menus. Well, that isn't entirely
true. Sometimes it works properly, but never on the first try. When it
fails, the error message it gives is:

"Cannot set the selected property. Unspecified error."

Set the selected and defaultSelected attributes of the first option
when you create the list. No further action required.

 

[-Lost]

On this page (just a demo) I can’t get IE6 to auto-select the first item in the
dynamically-generated drop-down menus. Well, that isn’t entirely true. Sometimes it
works properly, but never on the first try. When it fails, the error message it gives
is:

"Cannot set the selected property. Unspecified error."

FF2, IE7, and OP9 all behave as expected. I have tried a variety of workarounds to no
avail. I don't have an exhaustive list of everything I have tried, but it seems like I
have tried a hundred ways of setting the "selected" attribute.

The page uses jQuery 1.1.2. Currently the page is using...

$("#select-how option:first-child").attr("selected","selected");

...to auto-select the first item in the list.

Can anybody offer me some clues?

You do realize the default selection in most cases is the first element, therefore the
first-child?

I tested last-child, for example, in Internet Explorer 6 using jQuery 1.1.2 with no issue
or complaint. The last option of my select list was chosen by default.

-Lost

 

[RobG]

You do realize the default selection in most cases is the first element,

In practice, yes. But it is only convention to do so - the HTML
specification doesn't reqire it. It is good practice (though rarely
done) to ensure one option has the 'selected' attribute set.

If no option has its selected attribute set, Safari will not reset it
when the form's reset method is called either by script or using a
reset button.

therefore the first-child?

In some browsers, a select's firstChild might be a text node. I'm no
expert on jQuery, but it seems to skip text nodes when searching for
decendants - which might be a good thing sometimes but not others.

Responses here should focus on generic javascript and DOM, not a
particular implementation or library.