Html placeholder text in a textarea form - html

On one of my websites I have created a form that collects the persons name, email and a description of their idea.
I limited the characters of the description to 500 characters as I don't want to read a ton and I figured out how to have the text appear in the textarea before the user inputs what they want.
Currently the user has to delete "Description of your idea" themselves but I want to add the placeholder class where it deletes what I have written in the textarea when they click the textarea
I have looked on a few sites and couldn't figure out how to use it I placed it in my code, but usually the class just appeared as text inside my textarea.
Any help on using this class would be great thank you
Here is what I have written
Inside the head tags
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function limitText(limitField, limitCount, limitNum) {
if (limitField.value.length > limitNum) {
limitField.value = limitField.value.substring(0, limitNum);
} else {
limitCount.value = limitNum - limitField.value.length;
}
}
</script>
Inside the body tags
<form name="form1" method="post" action="ideas.php">
Your Name: <input type="text" name="name"><br>
Your Email: <input type="text" name="email"<br>
<textarea name="desc" cols=50 rows=10 onKeyDown="limitText(this.form.desc,this.form.countdown,500);"
onKeyUp="limitText(this.form.desc,this.form.countdown,500);">Description of your idea</textarea><br>
<font size="1">(Maximum characters: 500)<br>
You have <input readonly type="text" name="countdown" size="3" value="500"> characters left.</font>
<br>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit!"> </form>

There is a feature in HTML5 called 'placeholders', which produces exactly this feature without you having to do any coding at all.
All you need to do is add a placeholder attribute to your form field, like so:
<input type='text' name='name' placeholder='Enter your name'>
Sadly, of course, only a few browsers currently support it, but give it a go in Safari or Chrome to see it in action. The good news is that it is being added to virtually all browsers in the near future.
Of course, you still need to cater for users with older browsers, but you may as well make use of the feature in browsers that can use it.
A good way to deal with it is to use the placeholder attribute, and only fall back to the Javascript solution if the browser doesn't support the feature. The Javascript solution can take the text from the placeholder attribute, so you only need to specify it in one place.
See this page for how to detect whether the placeholder feature is supported: http://diveintohtml5.ep.io/detect.html
(or, as it says on that page, just use Modernizr)
The Javascript fall-back code is fairly simple to implement. Exactly how you do it would depend on whether you want to use JQuery or not, but here are links to a few examples:
http://www.morethannothing.co.uk/2010/01/placeholder-text-in-html5-a-js-fallback/
http://www.hagenburger.net/BLOG/HTML5-Input-Placeholder-Fix-With-jQuery.html
And of course Google will give you loads more if you search for html5 placeholder fallback or something similar.
Hope that helps.

Check out http://www.ajaxblender.com/howto-add-hints-form-auto-focus-using-javascript.html I think it has what you are looking for.
Here is a simple page that has an email field on it that I quickly put together (pulled mostly from the tutorial).
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.1.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
// Focus auto-focus fields
$('.auto-focus:first').focus();
// Initialize auto-hint fields
$('INPUT.auto-hint, TEXTAREA.auto-hint').focus(function(){
if($(this).val() == $(this).attr('title')){
$(this).val('');
$(this).removeClass('auto-hint');
}
});
$('INPUT.auto-hint, TEXTAREA.auto-hint').blur(function(){
if($(this).val() == '' && $(this).attr('title') != ''){
$(this).val($(this).attr('title'));
$(this).addClass('auto-hint');
}
});
$('INPUT.auto-hint, TEXTAREA.auto-hint').each(function(){
if($(this).attr('title') == ''){ return; }
if($(this).val() == ''){ $(this).val($(this).attr('title')); }
else { $(this).removeClass('auto-hint'); }
});
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
Email: <input type="text" name="email" id="email" title="i.e. me#example.com" class="auto-hint" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
The title text is put in the field if it's empty, and removed once the user starts typing.

Related

Why doesn't the autocapitalize attribute work with non-virtual keyboards?

I just found that we can use this attribute to specify which case the letters should be entered in, but that doesn't work for me.
Example:
<input type="text" autocapitalize="words" name="subject" value="Website Feedback" />
I set this attr to words but still type with lover case each new word, so how it should work?
As many in the comments have pointed out, the attribute does not affect phisical keyboards. You can achieve this using javascript, by listening to the keyup event and capitalizing the text every time it changes. Here is a working example:
$(".autocapitalize").keyup(function () {
const originalValue = $(this).val();
const capitalizedValue = originalValue.replace(/(^\w{1})|(\s+\w{1})/g, letter => letter.toUpperCase());
$(this).val(capitalizedValue).focus()
});
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<input type="text" class="autocapitalize" autocapitalize="words" name="subject" value="" />
It seems that some browsers do not take this attribute into account more "autocapitalize attribute doesn't affect behavior when typing on a physical keyboard".
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/autocapitalize
Maybe you should use a function instead.

Form upper case input

I have a form where users enter a surname. In case if they type it in all small case letters i want it to show up properly E.g. the user types in the word 'smith' but the response page will show 'Smith' instead?
<p>Name: <input type="text" name="surname"></p>
All you need to do is capitalize your input, look snippet below:
P.S. - I edited your p class so you don't get confused when you apply the style to input. Because it could affect every input you may have in your site if was applied to input itself.
.surname input {
text-transform: capitalize
}
<p class="surname">Name:
<input type="text" name="surname">
</p>
EDIT: here is jQuery solution, that will solve your problem with response page.
jQuery.fn.capitalize = function() {
$(this[0]).keyup(function(event) {
var box = event.target;
var txt = $(this).val();
var start = box.selectionStart;
var end = box.selectionEnd;
$(this).val(txt.replace(/^(.)|(\s|\-)(.)/g, function($1) {
return $1.toUpperCase();
}));
box.setSelectionRange(start, end);
});
return this;
}
$('.surname input').capitalize();
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<p class="surname">Name:
<input type="text" name="surname">
</p>
You could check the input value in the browser using Javascript and modify the value if the first character is not upper case. I'd recommend JQuery for that. Or use CSS to capitalize it.
Also note that browser-side Javascript or CSS transformations don't guarantee that a POST of your form will only send capitalized input; whatever happens in the browser can be bypassed. Hence, server-side you will want to do the same (capitalize if necessary).
Speaking of surnames, would you capitalize "van der Vaart"?
CSS:
text-transform: capitalize;
<p>Name: <input type="text" style="text-transform: capitalize;" name="surname"></p>

Making 'file' input element mandatory (required)

I want to make (an HTML) 'file' input element mandatory: something like
<input type='file' required = 'required' .../>
But it is not working.
I saw this WW3 manual which states 'required' attribute is new to HTML 5. But I am not using HTML 5 in the project I am working which doesn't support the new feature.
Any idea?
Thanks to HTML5, it is as easy as this:
<input type='file' required />
Example:
<form>
<input type='file' required />
<button type="submit"> Submit </button>
</form>
You can do it using Jquery like this:-
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#upload').bind("click",function()
{
var imgVal = $('#uploadfile').val();
if(imgVal=='')
{
alert("empty input file");
return false;
}
});
});
</script>
<input type="file" name="image" id="uploadfile" size="30" />
<input type="submit" name="upload" id="upload" class="send_upload" value="upload" />
As of now in 2017, I am able to do this-
<input type='file' required />
and when you submit the form, it asks for file.
You could create a polyfill that executes on the form submit. For example:
/* Attach the form event when jQuery loads. */
$(document).ready(function(e){
/* Handle any form's submit event. */
$("form").submit(function(e){
e.preventDefault(); /* Stop the form from submitting immediately. */
var continueInvoke = true; /* Variable used to avoid $(this) scope confusion with .each() function. */
/* Loop through each form element that has the required="" attribute. */
$("form input[required]").each(function(){
/* If the element has no value. */
if($(this).val() == ""){
continueInvoke = false; /* Set the variable to false, to indicate that the form should not be submited. */
}
});
/* Read the variable. Detect any items with no value. */
if(continueInvoke == true){
$(this).submit(); /* Submit the form. */
}
});
});
This script waits for the form to be submitted, then loops though each form element that has the required attribute has a value entered. If everything has a value, it submits the form.
An example element to be checked could be:
<input type="file" name="file_input" required="true" />
(You can remove the comments & minify this code when using it on your website)
var imgVal = $('[type=file]').val();
Similar to Vivek's suggestion, but now you have a more generic selector of the input file and you don't rely on specific ID or class.
See this demo.
Some times the input field is not bound with the form.
I might seem within the <form> and </form> tags but it is outside these tags.
You can try applying the form attribute to the input field to make sure it is related to your form.
<input type="file" name="" required="" form="YOUR-FORM-ID-HERE" />
I hope it helps.
All statements above are entirely correct. However, it is possible for a malicious user to send a POST request without using your form in order to generate errors. Thus, HTML and JS, while offering a user-friendly approach, will not prevent these sorts of attacks. To do so, make sure that your server double checks request data to make sure nothing is empty.
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/form-required-attribute-with-a-custom-validation-message-in-html5/
<button onclick="myFunction()">Try it</button>
<p id="geeks"></p>
<script>
function myFunction() {
var inpObj = document.getElementById("gfg");
if (!inpObj.checkValidity()) {
document.getElementById("geeks")
.innerHTML = inpObj.validationMessage;
} else {
document.getElementById("geeks")
.innerHTML = "Input is ALL RIGHT";
}
}
</script>

Can div with contenteditable=true be passed through form?

Can <div contenteditable="true">Some Text</div> be used instead of texarea and then passed trough form somehow?
Ideally without JS
Using HTML5, how do I use contenteditable fields in a form submission?
Content Editable does not work as a form element. Only javascript can allow it to work.
EDIT: In response to your comment... This should work.
<script>
function getContent(){
document.getElementById("my-textarea").value = document.getElementById("my-content").innerHTML;
}
</script>
<div id="my-content" contenteditable="true">Some Text</div>
<form action="some-page.php" onsubmit="return getContent()">
<textarea id="my-textarea" style="display:none"></textarea>
<input type="submit" />
</form>
I have tested and verified that this does work in FF and IE9.
You could better use:
<script>
function getContent(){
document.getElementById("my-textarea").value = document.getElementById("my-content").innerText;
}
</script>
NOTE: I changed innerHTML to innerText. This way you don't get HTML elements and text but only text.
Example: I submited "text", innerHTML gives the value: "\r\n text". It filters out "text" but it's longer then 4 characters.
innerText gives the value "text".
This is useful if you want to count the characters.
Try out this
document.getElementById('formtextarea').value=document.getElementById('editable_div').innerHTML;
a full example:-
<script>
function getContent() {
var div_val = document.getElementById("editablediv").innerHTML;
document.getElementById("formtextarea").value = div_val;
if (div_val == '') {
//alert("option alert or show error message")
return false;
//empty form will not be submitted. You can also alert this message like this.
}
}
</script>
`
<div id="editablediv" contenteditable="true">
Some Text</div>
<form id="form" action="action.php" onsubmit="return getContent()">
<textarea id="formtextarea" style="display:none"></textarea>
<input type="submit" />
</form>
`
Instead of this, you can use JQuery (if there is boundation to use JQuery for auto-resizing textarea or any WYSIWYG text editor)
Without JS it doesn't seem possible unfortunately.
If anyone is interested I patched up a solution with VueJS for a similar problem. In my case I have:
<h2 #focusout="updateMainMessage" v-html="mainMessage" contenteditable="true"></h2>
<textarea class="d-none" name="gift[main_message]" :value="mainMessage"></textarea>
In "data" you can set a default value for mainMessage, and in methods I have:
methods: {
updateMainMessage: function(e) {
this.mainMessage = e.target.innerText;
}
}
"d-none" is a Boostrap 4 class for display none.
Simple as that, and then you can get the value of the contenteditable field inside "gift[main_message]" during a normal form submit for example. I'm not interested in formatting, therefore "innerText" works better than "innerHTML" for me.

TextArea Maximum Length?

Is it possible to set the maximum length of text in a TextArea?
Something interesting is that HTML5 have added the feature of maxlength to textarea, if HTML5 is something you are ok to use right now.
W3C official documentation
Demo:
<textarea maxlength="20"></textarea>
You can use following format in HTML
<input type="text" maxlength="13">
If you are using jQuery, use this plugin
http://www.stjerneman.com/demo/maxlength-with-jquery
This solution is re-usable for all text areas via one function and
it doesn't inform the user that he/she is typing too many characters, it prevents them from doing so, sort of like maxlength
The Function:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function imposeMaxLength(Object, MaxLen)
{
return (Object.value.length <= MaxLen);
}
</script>
Implementation:
<textarea name="myName" onkeypress="return imposeMaxLength(this, 15);" ><textarea>
The Textarea doesn't accept the maxlength.
I have created a javascript function to handle this on onchange event. On one of my solutions I avoid the submit on form onsubmit event.
The code bellow will avoid submit if the textarea has more than 255 caracters
<script>
function checkSize(){
var x = document.getElementById('x');
return x.value.length <= 255;
}
</script>
<form onsubmit="return checkSize()">
<textarea id="x"><textarea>
</form>