[ipywidgets] how to trigger a widget data update from javascript

[akhmerov]

Hi! I'm using ipywidgets (v5.2.2 due to jupyter/dashboards_server#317). I also attached autocomplete from jqueryui to a Text. However I see that triggering the autocompletion doesn't sync the data with the python side and requires an extra keypress in the widget.

Is there a way to trigger the synchronization of the widget state manually from javascript?

[jasongrout]

Are you wanting to send state from the frontend to the backend, or request state from the backend?

[jasongrout]

To send current state changes from a widget view to the kernel, use the view.touch() method, like in https://github.com/ipython/ipywidgets/blob/master/jupyter-js-widgets/src/widget_string.ts#L359.

[akhmerov]

Are you wanting to send state from the frontend to the backend, or request state from the backend?

Yes, that's my goal.

Thanks for the pointer. Can you please also tell if it possible to reach the view object though DOM?