how to get the name of the parent element of the cursor positioned using javascript in html/jsp

Question

I need to get the element name(i.e. text area name where the cursor positioned), and pass the name to the server then when it is back I need to pass thru the url for anchoring to the position of the element.

every text/textarea have its own anchor names defined in a form i need to know where the cursor was positioned before form submit or perform any action on the form or when form refresh i need to refer to the last edited element.

Note: Iam using jsp/struts tags in the form

Please provide your suggestion on this as how i can achieve this. am in urgent.

thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try something like this:

<input type="hidden" id="lastedited" value="" />

Then for each textarea:

<textarea id="field2" 
onfocus="document.forms[0].lastedited=this.id">blah</textarea>

This will set the hidden field with the id of the last textarea the cursor was in, and pass that hidden field to the server.

I did not assume you had JQuery running... if you do, the Javascript above can be simplified somewhat.

Edit: TinyMCE Editor instances have their own OnChange events you can add a handler for, something like this:

var ed = new tinymce.Editor('textareaid', { blah blah blah });
ed.onChange.add(function(ed, e) { document.forms[0].lastedited=ed.getElement().id });

OnChange is the best event in this case, since TinyMCE doesn't have onfocus/onblur events, and tabbing into an editor won't result in OnClick.

Answer 2

onfocus, onclick and onchange are not identifying/working for my textareas, because Iam using tinyMCE as the RTE feature.

please let me know any alternatives available to provide this functionality for my textareas.