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how to get selected text from iframe with javascript ?

Answer 1

+1 A:

You can't access data inside an iframe that is from a domain different than yours. This is due to the Same origin policy.

Luca Matteis 2009-09-24 13:44:14

ok , sorry wrong example, in iframe i have text, i use iframe for wysiwig editor, so it isn't on different domain.

mm 2009-09-24 13:47:16

Answer 2

+1 A:

You need to get the selection from the document/window in the iframe.

function getIframeSelectionText(iframe) {
  var win = iframe.contentWindow;
  var doc = win.document;

  if (win.getSelection) {
    return win.getSelection().toString();
  } else if (doc.selection && doc.selection.createRange) {
    return doc.selection.createRange().text;
  }
}

var iframe = document.getElementById("my");
alert(getIframeSelectionText(iframe));

Tim Down 2009-09-24 14:12:59

Answer 3

+3 A:

document.getSelection

Is on the outer document. To get the selection of the document in the iframe you need to grab the inner document:

var iframe= document.getElementById('my');
var idoc= iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document; // ie compatibility

idoc.getSelection()

Note however that WebKit does not support document.getSelection() or document.selection. Try replacing it with window.getSelection() which works in both Firefox and WebKit, but returns a selection object (a collection/wrapper around Ranges), which needs stringing:

var idoc= iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document;
var iwin= iframe.contentWindow || iframe.contentDocument.defaultView;

''+iwin.getSelection()

I'm not sure what the point of this is:

if (window.RegExp) {
  var regstr = unescape("%20%20%20%20%20");
  var regexp = new RegExp(regstr, "g");
  str = str.replace(regexp, "");
}

RegExp is basic JavaScript dating back to the very earliest version; it will always be there, you don't have to sniff for it. The URL-encoding of multiple spaces is quite unnecessary. You don't even need RegExp as such, a string replace could be written as:

str= str.split('     ').join('');

bobince 2009-09-24 14:14:55

window.getSelection() returns a selection object, not a Range. toString on the selection will give you the selection text though.

Tim Down 2009-09-24 14:39:58

Yep, `''+` is an idiom for toString.

bobince 2009-09-24 15:15:09

Yes, I know. I was correcting a minor error in your referring to the selection object returned from window.getSelection() as a Range but agreeing with you that your code would work.

Tim Down 2009-09-24 15:31:35

Oh! yes, I see what you mean. will fix, ta!

bobince 2009-09-24 16:01:35

Answer 4

A:

WOOOOOOOWWWW

Tim Down

u are awesome!!! this one really worked for me !!!

function getIframeSelectionText(iframe) {
  var win = iframe.contentWindow;
  var doc = win.document;

  if (win.getSelection) {
    return win.getSelection().toString();
  } else if (doc.selection && doc.selection.createRange) {
    return doc.selection.createRange().text;
  }
}

var iframe = document.getElementById("my");
alert(getIframeSelectionText(iframe));

Alessandro 2010-07-08 11:21:21

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how to get selected text from iframe with javascript ?

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