Handing keyboard with jQuery on drop down menus

[bloodbender]

Hello Daniweb,
I'm trying to validate form fields with php via jQuery and everything is working great, except for one thing I can't figure out. I'll try my best to explain. Here's the jQuery:

$(document).ready(function(){
	$("form#reservation").submit(function(event){
		event.preventDefault();		// Prevent default submission of form
	});
	
	$("input#continueReservation").click(function(event){
		event.preventDefault(); 	// Prevent default submission of form
		$(this).hide();			// Hide the continue button to avoid multiple submissions
		$("input#submitting").show();	 // Show the loading bar
		$("table#summaryRows").html(""); // Clear the summary table so there are no duplicates from previous submissions
		
		// Get all input values
		var ticketcost 		= $("input#ticketcost").val();
		var carrier 		= $("input#carrier").val();
		var flight 		= $("input#flight").val();
		var from 		= $("select#from").val();
		var to 			= $("select#to").val();
		var journeytype 	= $("select#journeytype").val();
		var arrivalday 		= $("select#arrivalday").val();
		var arrivalmonth 	= $("select#arrivalmonth").val();
		var arrivalyear 	= $("select#arrivalyear").val();
		var arrivalhour 	= $("select#arrivalhour").val();
		var arrivalminutes 	= $("select#arrivalminutes").val();
		var arrivalampm	 	= $("select#arrivalampm").val();
		var returnday 		= $("select#returnday").val();
		var returnmonth 	= $("select#returnmonth").val();
		var returnyear 		= $("select#returnyear").val();
		var returnhour 		= $("select#returnhour").val();
		var returnminutes 	= $("select#returnminutes").val();
		var returnampm 		= $("select#returnampm").val();
		var totalpassengers     = $("select#totalpassengers").val();
		var primarycontact 	= $("input#primarycontact").val();
		var primaryphone 	= $("input#primaryphone").val();
		var primaryemail 	= $("input#primaryemail").val();

$.post("../../SubmitReservations", { carrier: carrier, flight: flight, from: from, to: to, journeytype: journeytype, arrivalday: arrivalday, arrivalmonth: arrivalmonth, arrivalyear: arrivalyear, arrivalhour: arrivalhour, arrivalminutes: arrivalminutes, arrivalampm: arrivalampm, returnday: returnday, returnmonth: returnmonth, returnyear: returnyear, returnhour: returnhour, returnminutes: returnminutes, returnampm: returnampm, totalpassengers: totalpassengers, primarycontact: primarycontact, primaryphone: primaryphone, primaryemail: primaryemail },
		function(data) {
			if(data == "emptyfields"){
				$("#emptyWarn").slideDown("slow");
				$("input#continueReservation").show();
				$("input#submitting").hide();
			} else if (data == "valid") {
				$("#emptyWarn").slideUp("slow");
				$("table#tableReserve").fadeOut("slow", function(){
					$("input#submittingPayment").hide();
					$("table#tablePayment").fadeIn("slow");
				});
			}
		});

and the php is simple and straight forward enough:

$carrier 			= clean($_POST['carrier']);
	$flight			= clean($_POST['flight']);
	$from 			= clean($_POST['from']);
	$to 			= clean($_POST['to']);
	$journeytype 		= clean($_POST['journeytype']);
	$arrivalday 		= clean($_POST['arrivalday']);
	$arrivalmonth 		= clean($_POST['arrivalmonth']);
	$arrivalyear 		= clean($_POST['arrivalyear']);
	$arrivalhour 		= clean($_POST['arrivalhour']);
	$arrivalminutes 	= clean($_POST['arrivalminutes']);
	$arrivalampm 		= clean($_POST['arrivalampm']);
	$returnday 		= clean($_POST['returnday']);
	$returnmonth 		= clean($_POST['returnmonth']);
	$returnyear 		= clean($_POST['returnyear']);
	$returnhour		= clean($_POST['returnhour']);
	$returnminutes 		= clean($_POST['returnminutes']);
	$returnampm 		= clean($_POST['returnampm']);
	$totalpassengers	= clean($_POST['totalpassengers']);
	$primarycontact 	= clean($_POST['primarycontact']);
	$primaryphone 		= clean($_POST['primaryphone']);
	$primaryemail 		= clean($_POST['primaryemail']);
							
	// Validate values
	if(empty($carrier) || empty($flight) || empty($primarycontact) || empty($primaryphone) || empty($primaryemail) || $from == "0" || $to == "0" || $journeytype == "0" || $arrivalday == "0" || $arrivalmonth == "0" || $arrivalyear == "0" || $arrivalhour == "0" || $arrivalminutes == "0" || $arrivalampm == "0" || $totalpassengers == "0") {
		echo "emptyfields";
		exit();
	} else {
		echo "valid";
	}

Now this works exactly as I want it to ONLY IF all the values in the drop downs are selected with a mouse click. If any of the drop downs are selected by tabbing over to them and using the keyboard up and down keys to select a value, it doesn't work. I've tried to use the .change() to alert out the values and they are returning fine, not blank. When filling out dates in online forms, I myself will just tab over to the "month" for example and just press the first alphabet of the month to go straight there, so I have to make this work but I'm at a total loss how to.

Help appreciated. Thankiez!

[AleMonteiro]

When you use the keyboard to select the options and then send the form, witch value does it have?

If you alert the value of a select, using keyboard to select it, what happens? It's undefined or a wrong value?

[bloodbender]

That's the strange thing. It alerts the correct value. It's neither undefined, nor is it the wrong value. In the php file, I've even tried to get rid of the validations and JUST send back the values of all posted fields, and even that works fine, so clearly it's posting ok too.

I'm now experimenting with .data() to see if I can somehow remember the last selected value and store than in a different variable to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for your response bud!