How can I invisiblize groups of controls via jQuery?

Question

In my Sharepoint project/Web Part/Web Page, I dynamically create page elements/controls using C# in the *.ascx.cs file.

In the *.ascx file, I use jQuery for responding to events that happen on the page (selections, changes of checkbox states, etc.).

I have a need to conditionally invisiblize groups of controls/elements on the page. Specifically, if the user checks a certain checkbox, I can "remove" whole swaths of the page that, in that scenario, don't apply to her.

How can I do this? I've got this starting point:

/* If the select "Yes" (they are seeking payment for themselves, as opposed to someone else), omit (invisibilize) sections 2 and 3 on the form */
$(document).on("change", '[id$=ckbxPaymentForSelf]', function () {
    var ckd = this.checked;
    if (ckd) {
        // what now?
    }
});

I could do it the hair-pulling-out way (which would be very painful for me, because I have almost as much hair as Absalom did), and set each individual element, like so:

if (ckd) {
    var $this = $('[id$=txtbxthis]');
    var $that = $('[id$=txtbxthat]');
    var $theother = $('[id$=txtbxtheother]');
    . . . // store a reference to all the other to-be-affected elements in vars
    $this.visible = false; // <= this is pseudoscript; I don't know what the jQuery to invisiblize an element is
    $that.visible = false; // " "
    $theother.visible = false; // " " 
    . . . // invisiblize all the other to-be-affected elements 
}

Surely there's a more elegant/better way!

Is it a matter of assigning all the conditionally invisible elements a particular class, and then invisiblizing every element that is assigned that class, or what?

Also, I want the area formerly used by this now-invisible swath to "go away" or "roll up" not sit there with a blank stare, yawning chasm, or Gobi Desert-like featureless expanse.

Answer 1

there are a number of ways to do this. but in your jquery implementation I would decorate the elements with data tags that will tell the code which elements to hide and show.

<input data-group="1" type="text" />
<input data-group="2" type="text" />

var $group1 = $('*[data-group="1"]');
var $group2 = $('*[data-group="2"]');
if (ckd) {
  $group1.hide(); 
  $group2.show(); 
}
else{
 $group2.hide(); 
 $group1.show(); 
}

You could do the same thing with css classes as well but I prefer using the data attribute

Answer 2

You can hide an element like so:

$('...').hide();

Or you can slide it up with:

$('...').slideUp();

to get a nice sliding up animation.

On a side note, you can do this to multiple elements at once, in your case:

$('[id$=txtbxthis], [id$=txtbxthat], [id$=txtbxtheother]').slideUp();

Answer 3

If you can group your controls using classes, you could select the class which needs to be hidden in that particular scenario and just use the hide() function:

if (ckd) {
    var cls = getClassForCurrentScenario();
    $("." + cls).hide(); //slideUp() would be an animated alternative
}

If the controls can be grouped inside a div, for example, then you'd just need to hide that element:

if (ckd) {
    var id = getElementIdForCurrentScenario();
    $("#" + id).hide(); //slideUp() would be an animated alternative
}

It really depends on how you manage to group your controls into "target groups", so that you can efficiently access them later.