Insert text into textarea with jQuery

Question

Hey, I'm wondering how I can insert text into a text area using jquery, upon the click of an anchor tag.

I don't want to replace text already in textarea, I want to append new text to textarea.

Thankyou.

Answer 1

have you tried:

$("#yourAnchor").click(function () {
    $("#yourTextarea").val("your text");
});

not sure about autohighlighting, though.

EDIT:

To append:

$("#yourAnchor").click(function () {
    $("#yourTextarea").append("your text to append");
});

Answer 2

I use this function in my code:

$.fn.extend({
    insertAtCaret: function(myValue){
      if (document.selection) {
        this.focus();
        sel = document.selection.createRange();
        sel.text = myValue;
        this.focus();
      }
      else if (this.selectionStart || this.selectionStart == '0') {
        var startPos = this.selectionStart;
        var endPos = this.selectionEnd;
        var scrollTop = this.scrollTop;
        this.value = this.value.substring(0, startPos)+myValue+this.value.substring(endPos,this.value.length);
        this.focus();
        this.selectionStart = startPos + myValue.length;
        this.selectionEnd = startPos + myValue.length;
        this.scrollTop = scrollTop;
      } else {
        this.value += myValue;
        this.focus();
      }
    }
})

It's not 100% mine, I googled it somewhere and then tuned for mine app.

Usage: $('#element').insertAtCaret('text');

Answer 3

From what you have in Jason's comments try:

$('a').click(function() //this will apply to all anchor tags
{ 
   $('#area').val('foobar'); //this puts the textarea for the id labeled 'area'
})

Edit- To append to text look at below

$('a').click(function() //this will apply to all anchor tags
{ 
   $('#area').val($('#area').val()+'foobar'); 
})

Answer 4

What you ask for should be reasonably straightforward in jQuery-

$(function() {
    $('#myAnchorId').click(function() { 
        var areaValue = $('#area').val();
        $('#area').val(areaValue + 'Whatever you want to enter');
    });
});

The best way that I can think of highlighting inserted text is by wrapping it in a span with a CSS class with background-color set to the color of your choice. On the next insert, you could remove the class from any existing spans (or strip the spans out).

However, There are plenty of free WYSIWYG HTML/Rich Text editors available on the market, I'm sure one will fit your needs

• TinyMCE - JavaScript WYSIWYG editor
• Rich Text Editor - YUI Library
• 10 jQuery and Non-jQuery JavaScript Rich Text Editors

Answer 5

this one allow you "inject" a piece of text to textbox, inject means: appends the text where cursor is.

function inyectarTexto(elemento,valor){
 var elemento_dom=document.getElementsByName(elemento)[0];
 if(document.selection){
  elemento_dom.focus();
  sel=document.selection.createRange();
  sel.text=valor;
  return;
 }if(elemento_dom.selectionStart||elemento_dom.selectionStart=="0"){
  var t_start=elemento_dom.selectionStart;
  var t_end=elemento_dom.selectionEnd;
  var val_start=elemento_dom.value.substring(0,t_start);
  var val_end=elemento_dom.value.substring(t_end,elemento_dom.value.length);
  elemento_dom.value=val_start+valor+val_end;
 }else{
  elemento_dom.value+=valor;
 }
}

And you can use it like this:

<a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="inyectarTexto('nametField','hello world');" >Say hello world to text</a>

Funny and have more sence when we have "Insert Tag into Text" functionality.

works in all browsers.

Answer 6

I used that and it work fine :)

$("#textarea").html("Put here your content");

Remi

Answer 7

I want to do something similar: have text people can click on in page A and have it injected into textarea on page B.

I'm adapting some javascript and want to do this with jQuery:

function DoneLoading(){
  //setDefaults();

}

function setDefaults(){
      document.getElementById("quote").value = "<?php
if(isset($_REQUEST["quote"])){
echo $_REQUEST["quote"];
} else {
echo "Type Your Quote Here!";
}
?>";

Can you point me in the right direction for accomplishing this with jQuery?

Answer 8

I like the jQuery function extension. However, the this refers to the jQuery object not the DOM object. So I've modified it a little to make it even better (can update in multiple textboxes / textareas at once).

$.fn.extend({
insertAtCaret: function(myValue){
  this.each(function(i) {
    if (document.selection) {
      this.focus();
      sel = document.selection.createRange();
      sel.text = myValue;
      this.focus();
    }
    else if (this.selectionStart || this.selectionStart == '0') {
      var startPos = this.selectionStart;
      var endPos = this.selectionEnd;
      var scrollTop = this.scrollTop;
      this.value = this.value.substring(0, startPos)+myValue+this.value.substring(endPos,this.value.length);
      this.focus();
      this.selectionStart = startPos + myValue.length;
      this.selectionEnd = startPos + myValue.length;
      this.scrollTop = scrollTop;
    } else {
      this.value += myValue;
      this.focus();
    }
  })
}

})

This works really well. You can insert into multiple places at once, like:

$('#element1, #element2, #element3, .class-of-elements').insertAtCaret('text');

Answer 9

Hej this is a modified version which works OK in FF @least for me and inserts at the carets position

  $.fn.extend({
  insertAtCaret: function(myValue){
  var obj;
  if( typeof this[0].name !='undefined' ) obj = this[0];
  else obj = this;

  if ($.browser.msie) {
    obj.focus();
    sel = document.selection.createRange();
    sel.text = myValue;
    obj.focus();
    }
  else if ($.browser.mozilla || $.browser.webkit) {
    var startPos = obj.selectionStart;
    var endPos = obj.selectionEnd;
    var scrollTop = obj.scrollTop;
    obj.value = obj.value.substring(0, startPos)+myValue+obj.value.substring(endPos,obj.value.length);
    obj.focus();
    obj.selectionStart = startPos + myValue.length;
    obj.selectionEnd = startPos + myValue.length;
    obj.scrollTop = scrollTop;
  } else {
    obj.value += myValue;
    obj.focus();
  }
}

})

Answer 10

I know this is an old question but for people searching for this solution it's worth noting that you should not use append() to add content to a textarea. the append() method targets innerHTML not the value of the textarea. The content may appear in the textarea but it will not be added to the element's form value.

As noted above using:

$('#textarea').val($('#textarea').val()+'new content'); 

will work fine.