jQuery UI for form confirmation

Question

This is my first question on StackOverflow and I've already visited every single question about jQuery Dialog & Forms, but still have an issue.

I'm trying to implement a jQuery Confirmation Dialog on my form. The window actually appears without issues, but when I click "Confirm", the form isn't submitted...

This is the Javascript :

        // Form validation
        $(function(){
            var currentForm;
            $("#dialog-confirm").dialog({
                    autoOpen: false,
                    resizable: false,
                    modal: true,
                    buttons: {
                        'Confirm': function(e) {
                            currentForm.submit();
                            return true;
                        },
                        Cancel: function() {
                            $(this).dialog('close');
                            return false;
                        }
                    }
                });
            $("#news-listing").submit(function(e){
                currentForm=$(this);
                if($("#dialog-confirm").dialog("open"))
                {
                    return false;
                } 
            });
});

And there is the HTML

<div id="dialog-confirm" title="Empty the recycle bin ?">
    <p><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-alert" style="float:left; margin: 20px 10px 20px 10px;"></span>These items will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Are you sure?</p>
</div>

<form action="news/action/delete" id="news-listing">
<table id="users-listing">
    <tr>
        <th class="id">ID</th>
        <th class="title">Title</th>
        <th class="url">URL</th>
        <th class="modify">Modify</th>
        <th class="checkcell">Delete</th>
    </tr>   
    <tr class='alt'>
        <td class='id'>".$news['news_id']."</td>";
        <td class='title'>".$news['news_title']."</td>";
        <td>".$this->News->get_url($news['news_id'])."</td>";
        <td class='modify'><a href="modify/1">Modify</a></td>;
        <td><input type="checkbox" name="delete[]" /></td>
    </tr>
</table>
<input type="submit" name="submit" />
</form>

Thank you in advance for your help !

EDIT : Here is my new code, the HTML does not change. Now I have the dialog, but confirm button doesn't submit, cancel button works well.

$(function() {   
                // Get the current form object 
                var currentForm = $("#news-listing");
                // Initialize dialog
                $("#dialog-confirm").dialog({
                    autoOpen: false,
                    resizable: false,
                    modal: true,
                    buttons: {
                        'Confirm': function() {
                            currentForm.submit();
                            return true;
                        },
                        Cancel: function() {
                            $(this).dialog('close');
                            return false;
                        }
                    }
                });

                // Validate the form
                $("#news-listing").validate({
                    rules:{
                        "delete[]":"required"
                    },
                    submitHandler: function(e){
                        $("#dialog-confirm").dialog("open");
                    }
                });
            });

Answer 1

The problem is that currentForm is undefined when this line is executed:

currentForm.submit();

An error will be thrown because undefined does not have a submit method!

You attempt to set the value of currentForm in the submit event handler of the form itself, so you are suffering from something of a chicken and egg problem. You need to assign the form element to currentForm outside of the event handler:

$(function() {    
    var currentForm = $("#news-listing");
    $("#dialog-confirm").dialog({
        //Dialog options...
        //currentForm.submit() will now work here
    });
    $("#news-listing").submit(function(e) {
        //Event handler...
        //This will be executed when currentForm.submit() is called
    });
});