Programatically updating underlying data in Slickgrid - slickgrid

Question

I have 6 textboxes at the top of the screen that update an entire column(one textbox per column) based on any changes. I was selecting the columns based on their class (.l#). Here is the code (issues to follow):
function UpdateField() {
var ctrl = this;
var id = parseInt(ctrl.id.replace("item", ""), 10) - 1;
var bound = [".l1", ".l7", ".l8", ".l9"];
var fields = $(bound[id]);
for (var i = 0; i < fields.length; i++)
{
fields[i].innerHTML = $(ctrl).val();
}
};
which is bound to the keyup event for the text areas. Issues are:
1) initially fields.length was -1 as I didn't want to put data in the "add new
row" section at the bottom. However, when running it, I noticed the
final "real" record wasn't being populated. Also, when stepping through, I
noticed that the "new row" field was before the "last row" field.
2) when doing it this way, it is purely superficial: if I double click the field,
the real data hasn't been changed.
so in the grand scheme of things, I know that I was doing it wrong. I'm assuming it involves updating the data and then forcing a render, but I'm not certain.

Answer 1

Figured out how to do it. Modified the original code this way:
function UpdateField() {
var ctrl = this;
var id = parseInt(ctrl.id.replace("item", ""), 10) - 1;
var bound = ['title1', 'title2', 'title3', 'title4'];
var field = bound[id];
for (var i = 0; i < dataView.getLength(); i++)
{
var item = dataView.getItem(i);
item[field] = $(ctrl).val();
dataView.updateItem(i, item);
}
grid.invalidate();
};
I have 6 textboxes (item1-item6) that "bind" to fields in the sense that if I change data in a textbox, it updates all of the rows and any new rows added also have this data.
Parts where the two issues can be explained this way:
1) to work around that, though still it would be a presentational fix and not a real updating of the underlying data, one could force it to ignore if it had the active class attached. Extra work, and not in the "real" direction one is going for (masking the field).
2) It was pretty obvious with the original implementation (though it was all I could figure out via Chrome Dev Tools that I could modify at the time) that it was merely updating a div's content and not actually interacting with the data underneath. Would look nice, and perhaps one could just pull data from the item1-item6 boxes in place of the column if it is submitted, but if someone attempts to modify the cell, they'll be looking at the real data again.