In jQuery, how can I monitor a dynamically populated element (AJAX), without basing it on an event?

I have the following markup on page load:

<select name="sel_billing_address"></select>

After page load that select is then populated by some AJAX to be something along the lines of:

<select name="sel_billing_address">
  <option value="1">hi</option>
  <option value="2">there</option>
  <option value="3" s开发者_JAVA技巧elected="selected">sally</option>
</select>

I need to grab the selected option from this list. Normally it's just a simple case of:

jQuery('select[name=sel_billing_address] option:selected');

but because it's loaded dynamically, I need to monitor it using .live() - or by some other means. If I monitor it using live('change') then it works great - but I need the values when the select box might not have been changed.

.live('load') seems like the obvious choice, but that only works when loading the element - the select element itself is loaded on page load, at which point it's empty. I have also tried doing .live('load') on the OPTION rather than the SELECT, but that doesn't seem to be available either.

It's also worth noting that I cannot change the markup, how the page loads elements, and I can't plug into the callback parameter of the script that originally changes the select - everything is external.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

check out the livequery plugin. It has the ability to work the same way as the .live() method but unlike live, isn't limited to just being bound to events

You could look into (Global) Ajax Events. This may give you a way to sneak into the ajax callback that you don't have direct access to.

// Use the Global Ajax Event "ajaxComplete"
$('select[name=sel_billing_address]').bind('ajaxComplete', function () {
    // Check to see if select has any option elements yet
    if ($(this).find('option').length > 0) {
        // Unbind the ajax event
        $(this).unbind('ajaxComplete');

        // Do your stuff
        // Here...
    }
});

If you check out the jquery page I linked to you can see that "ajaxComplete" occurs after any "complete".

EDIT: Yes... this is still using an event, but I think it will resolve your issue.