Changing the "placeholder" attribute of HTML5 input elements dynamically using Javascript

Question

I'm trying to dynamically update the HTML5 placeholder attribute of a text field using jQuery.

$("textarea").attr("placeholder", "New placeholder text");

From Firebug, I can observe that the placeholder attribute is indeed changing. But in the rendered textarea element, it stays the same. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

If you are using Firebug I can assume you are using Firefox, and Firefox doesn't yet support placeholder attribute in the input fields itself.

Placeholder feature detection

I just tried on Chrome for Mac and it supports placeholder text on textareas (and changes via javascript)