jQuery Forum

Apply classes to the elements that you want to change. Use the classes to find the elements, rather than complex structure navigation. If you design the classes correctly, it is very simple.

but jquery mobile usually decorates original element with a whole load of new html and with its own classes and I wont have access to the piece of html that I want to modify without knowing the intricacies of the the generated jqm html

Of course, if you want to modify the appearance of a widget, then you need to understand the structure of the widget, and, yes, you will have problems with version updates.

You asked about changing "some value in a list", which is pretty ambiguous. What is it you are trying to change? For example, changing some text is as simple as wrapping it in a <span class="some-class">something</span>.

Can you give a concrete example of what you are talking about? I really have no clue from what you posted. We can't really discuss the "correct" way of doing something until we know what it is you are trying to do.