I have a large form on my website that I want to be able to autosave to a database as the user is filling it out. Almost identical to how google drive works when typing a document.
I am trying not to have a function that runs every X seconds but rather a function that runs when the user has taken a break in typing. So, if the user has not typed in 1 hour but is still on the page, it doesn't keep pushing save requests.
This is all I have so far which is a basic javascript form submit.
$("#page1Form").submit(function(event){
event.preventDefault();
$changesSaved.text("Saving...");
var url = "/backend/forms/page1-POST.php";
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: url,
data: $("#page1Form").serialize(),
success: function(data) { $changesSaved.text(data); }
});
return false;
});
Debounce the textarea change.
Put your ajax call in the saveToDB()
function. These event names('input propertychange change'
) will trigger on any form element change such as radio buttons, inputs, etc.
var timeoutId;
$('#the-textarea').on('input propertychange change', function() {
console.log('Textarea Change');
clearTimeout(timeoutId);
timeoutId = setTimeout(function() {
// Runs 1 second (1000 ms) after the last change
saveToDB();
}, 1000);
});
function saveToDB()
{
console.log('Saving to the db');
}
Here is a full demo showing you how to debounce a full form and use ajax to send the data and then return the status (Saving, Saved, etc).