Develop Reference

Replacing contenteditable characters on the fly with (or without) rangy

I'm working on a little experimental editor where I would like to visualize the time between typed characters. Therefore I'm using javascript and a contenteditable div to wrap every character with a SPAN and a timestamp attribute. I build a little function with the help of rangy:
function insertAtCursor(char, timestamp) {
var sel = rangy.getSelection();
var range = sel.rangeCount ? sel.getRangeAt(0) : null;
if (range) {
var el = document.createElement("span");
$(el).attr('time', timestamp);
el.appendChild(document.createTextNode(char));
range.insertNode(el);
range.setStartAfter(el);
rangy.getSelection().setSingleRange(range);
}
}
Now I'm facing two problems with this concept where I would appreciate some help:
a. With the above function the output ends in nested span's like seen here:
<span time="12345">a
<span time="12345">b
<span time="12345">c</span>
</span>
</span>
b. Even if I could get the above function running, a copy&paste or drag&drop action would possibly also end in some nested span's ... and I wonder if there is a way to avoid that at all?
Thanks,
Andreas

I'm not convinced this a good idea overall, particularly if the text could get large. A couple of improvements:
time should probably be data-time to validate as HTML5
you need to handle the case where some content is selected (adding range.deleteContents() would do).
However, if you are going to do this, I would suggest checking if the cursor is at the end of a text node inside an existing <span> and appending the new <span> after the text node's parent. Something like this:
Live demo: http://jsfiddle.net/kWL82/1/
Code:
function insertAtCursor(char, timestamp) {
var sel = rangy.getSelection();
var range = sel.rangeCount ? sel.getRangeAt(0) : null;
var parent;
if (range) {
var el = document.createElement("span");
$(el).attr('data-time', timestamp);
el.appendChild(document.createTextNode(char));
// Check if the cursor is at the end of the text in an existing span
if (range.endContainer.nodeType == 3
&& (parent = range.endContainer.parentNode)
&& (parent.tagName == "SPAN")) {
range.setStartAfter(parent);
}
range.insertNode(el);
range.setStartAfter(el);
rangy.getSelection().setSingleRange(range);
}
}

How to mimic JS ranges/selections with divs as backgrounds?

I need to mimic ranges/selections (those that highlight content on a website, and when you press for ex CTRL + C you copy the content) with divs as backgrounds. Chances are that the "highlighting divs" will be position:absolute;
<div id="highlight">
<!-- The highlightor divs would go here -->
</div>
<div id="edit">
<!-- The divs to be highlighted (that have text) would go here -->
</div>
Edit: Functionalities such as copying are essential.
PS: If you're curious about "why", refer to this question.
I created a new question because I felt the old one was pretty much answered, and this one differed to much from that one.

Here's the concept, with some code to get you started. Every time text is selected in the page, append that text to a hidden textarea on the page and then select the textarea. Then, wrap the original selection in a span to make it look selected. This way, you have the appearance of a selection, and since the hidden textarea is actually selected, when the user hits "ctrl+c" they are copying the text from the textarea.
To get the full functionality you are looking for, you'll probably want to extend this. Sniff keys for "ctrl+a" (for select all). I don't think you'll be able to override right-click behavior... at least not easily or elegantly. But this much is at least a proof of concept for you to run with.
window.onload = init;
function init()
{
document.getElementById("hidden").value = "";
document.body.ondblclick = interceptSelection;
document.body.onmouseup = interceptSelection;
}
function interceptSelection(e)
{
e = e || window.event;
var target = e.target || e.srcElement;
var hidden = document.getElementById("hidden");
if (target == hidden) return;
var range, text;
if (window.getSelection)
{
var sel = getSelection();
if (sel.rangeCount == 0) return;
range = getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
}
else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange)
{
range = document.selection.createRange();
}
text = "text" in range ? range.text : range.toString();
if (text)
{
if (range.surroundContents)
{
var span = document.createElement("span");
span.className = "selection";
range.surroundContents(span);
}
else if (range.pasteHTML)
{
range.pasteHTML("<span class=\"selection\">" + text + "</span>")
}
hidden.value += text;
}
hidden.select();
}
Here's the css I used in my test to hide the textarea and style the selected text:
#hidden
{
position: fixed;
top: -100%;
}
.selection
{
background-color: Highlight;
color: HighlightText;
}

boundary-points of a range does not meet specific requirements

I am writing a script on which the user needs to be able to select some text which is sent via ajax to the backend script for further process.
I can select plain text nodes fine or text nodes that have bold, italic or underlined text inside it.
For e.g
<p>This is <strong>some</strong> cool <em>italic</em> text, <u>really!</u></p>
So, that works, that is cool.
However, the issue is, if the text node starts with hsome bold, italic or underlined text OR even headings it outputs the following error on firefox console:
The boundary-points of a range does not meet specific requirements." code: "1 range.surroundContents($('<span...wAnno_'+newLen+'"></span>').get(0));
The error is output when the user selects something like:
<strong>Mark says</strong> Hi
OR
<em>Mark says</em> Hi
OR
<u>Mark says</u> Hi
The same error outputs even if a text is enclosed inside heading tags e.g <h2>test</h2>
My code looks like:
var select = window.getSelection();
var parents = $(select.focusNode).parents('.the-content');
if($(select.focusNode).parent().hasClass('.highlighted')) {
alert('This text is already highlighted');
} else {
for(var i = 0; i < select.rangeCount; i++) {
var range = select.getRangeAt(i);
range.surroundContents($('<span class="newHighlight" id="newHigh_'+newLen+'"></span>').get(0));
}
}
var selectedText = select.toString();
I need help with fixing this.
Help with the code will be awesome.

The problem is that the surroundContents method of Range can't work on a Range where the start and end boundaries lie within different elements, because surrounding the contents of such a Range within an element would not produce valid HTML. If changing the background colour of your Range is all you need to do, you could use the following trick with document.execCommand:
function highlight(colour) {
var range, sel;
if (window.getSelection) {
// Non-IE case
sel = window.getSelection();
if (sel.getRangeAt) {
range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
}
document.designMode = "on";
if (range) {
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
}
// Use HiliteColor since some browsers apply BackColor to the whole block
if ( !document.execCommand("HiliteColor", false, colour) ) {
document.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour);
}
document.designMode = "off";
} else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
// IE case
range = document.selection.createRange();
range.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour);
}
}
Otherwise, you'll need to walk through the text nodes within the range and surround each with a <span>, which is not trivial. I've been working on a cross-browser range and selection library that includes a module for applying a CSS class to the contents of a selection or Range at http://code.google.com/p/rangy/, although that module is a few days away from being documented and released.

Tag-like autocompletion and caret/cursor movement in contenteditable elements

I'm working on a jQuery plugin that will allow you to do #username style tags, like Facebook does in their status update input box.
My problem is, that even after hours of researching and experimenting, it seems REALLY hard to simply move the caret. I've managed to inject the <a> tag with someone's name, but placing the caret after it seems like rocket science, specially if it's supposed work in all browsers.
And I haven't even looked into replacing the typed #username text with the tag yet, rather than just injecting it as I'm doing right now... lol
There's a ton of questions about working with contenteditable here on Stack Overflow, and I think I've read all of them, but they don't really cover properly what I need. So any more information anyone can provide would be great :)

You could use my Rangy library, which attempts with some success to normalize browser range and selection implementations. If you've managed to insert the <a> as you say and you've got it in a variable called aElement, you can do the following:
var range = rangy.createRange();
range.setStartAfter(aElement);
range.collapse(true);
var sel = rangy.getSelection();
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);

I got interested in this, so I've written the starting point for a full solution. The following uses my Rangy library with its selection save/restore module to save and restore the selection and normalize cross browser issues. It surrounds all matching text (#whatever in this case) with a link element and positions the selection where it had been previously. This is triggered after there has been no keyboard activity for one second. It should be quite reusable.
function createLink(matchedTextNode) {
var el = document.createElement("a");
el.style.backgroundColor = "yellow";
el.style.padding = "2px";
el.contentEditable = false;
var matchedName = matchedTextNode.data.slice(1); // Remove the leading #
el.href = "http://www.example.com/?name=" + matchedName;
matchedTextNode.data = matchedName;
el.appendChild(matchedTextNode);
return el;
}
function shouldLinkifyContents(el) {
return el.tagName != "A";
}
function surroundInElement(el, regex, surrounderCreateFunc, shouldSurroundFunc) {
var child = el.lastChild;
while (child) {
if (child.nodeType == 1 && shouldSurroundFunc(el)) {
surroundInElement(child, regex, surrounderCreateFunc, shouldSurroundFunc);
} else if (child.nodeType == 3) {
surroundMatchingText(child, regex, surrounderCreateFunc);
}
child = child.previousSibling;
}
}
function surroundMatchingText(textNode, regex, surrounderCreateFunc) {
var parent = textNode.parentNode;
var result, surroundingNode, matchedTextNode, matchLength, matchedText;
while ( textNode && (result = regex.exec(textNode.data)) ) {
matchedTextNode = textNode.splitText(result.index);
matchedText = result[0];
matchLength = matchedText.length;
textNode = (matchedTextNode.length > matchLength) ?
matchedTextNode.splitText(matchLength) : null;
surroundingNode = surrounderCreateFunc(matchedTextNode.cloneNode(true));
parent.insertBefore(surroundingNode, matchedTextNode);
parent.removeChild(matchedTextNode);
}
}
function updateLinks() {
var el = document.getElementById("editable");
var savedSelection = rangy.saveSelection();
surroundInElement(el, /#\w+/, createLink, shouldLinkifyContents);
rangy.restoreSelection(savedSelection);
}
var keyTimer = null, keyDelay = 1000;
function keyUpLinkifyHandler() {
if (keyTimer) {
window.clearTimeout(keyTimer);
}
keyTimer = window.setTimeout(function() {
updateLinks();
keyTimer = null;
}, keyDelay);
}
HTML:
<p contenteditable="true" id="editable" onkeyup="keyUpLinkifyHandler()">
Some editable content for #someone or other
</p>

As you say you can already insert an tag at the caret, I'm going to start from there. The first thing to do is to give your tag an id when you insert it. You should then have something like this:
<div contenteditable='true' id='status'>I went shopping with <a href='#' id='atagid'>Jane</a></div>
Here is a function that should place the cursor just after the tag.
function setCursorAfterA()
{
var atag = document.getElementById("atagid");
var parentdiv = document.getElementById("status");
var range,selection;
if(window.getSelection) //FF,Chrome,Opera,Safari,IE9+
{
parentdiv.appendChild(document.createTextNode(""));//FF wont allow cursor to be placed directly between <a> tag and the end of the div, so a space is added at the end (this can be trimmed later)
range = document.createRange();//create range object (like an invisible selection)
range.setEndAfter(atag);//set end of range selection to just after the <a> tag
range.setStartAfter(atag);//set start of range selection to just after the <a> tag
selection = window.getSelection();//get selection object (list of current selections/ranges)
selection.removeAllRanges();//remove any current selections (FF can have more than one)
parentdiv.focus();//Focuses contenteditable div (necessary for opera)
selection.addRange(range);//add our range object to the selection list (make our range visible)
}
else if(document.selection)//IE 8 and lower
{
range = document.body.createRange();//create a "Text Range" object (like an invisible selection)
range.moveToElementText(atag);//select the contents of the a tag (i.e. "Jane")
range.collapse(false);//collapse selection to end of range (between "e" and "</a>").
while(range.parentElement() == atag)//while ranges cursor is still inside <a> tag
{
range.move("character",1);//move cursor 1 character to the right
}
range.move("character",-1);//move cursor 1 character to the left
range.select()//move the actual cursor to the position of the ranges cursor
}
/*OPTIONAL:
atag.id = ""; //remove id from a tag
*/
}
EDIT:
Tested and fixed script. It definitely works in IE6, chrome 8, firefox 4, and opera 11. Don't have other browsers on hand to test, but it doesn't use any functions that have changed recently so it should work in anything that supports contenteditable.
This button is handy for testing:
<input type='button' onclick='setCursorAfterA()' value='Place Cursor After <a/> tag' >
Nico

How can I highlight the text of the DOM Range object?

I select some text on the html page(opened in firefox) using mouse,and using javascript functions, i create/get the rangeobject corresponding to the selected text.
userSelection =window.getSelection();
var rangeObject = getRangeObject(userSelection);
Now i want to highlight all the text which comes under the rangeobject.I am doing it like this,
var span = document.createElement("span");
rangeObject.surroundContents(span);
span.style.backgroundColor = "yellow";
Well,this works fine, only when the rangeobject(startpoint and endpoint) lies in the same textnode,then it highlights the corresponding text.Ex
<p>In this case,the text selected will be highlighted properly,
because the selected text lies under a single textnode</p>
But if the rangeobject covers more than one textnode, then it is not working properlay, It highlights only the texts which lie in the first textnode,Ex
<p><h3>In this case</h3>, only the text inside the header(h3)
will be highlighted, not any text outside the header</p>
Any idea how can i make, all the texts which comes under rangeobject,highlighted,independent of whether range lies in a single node or multiple node?
Thanks....

I would suggest using document's or the TextRange's execCommand method, which is built for just such a purpose, but is usually used in editable documents. Here's the answer I gave to a similar question:
The following should do what you want. In non-IE browsers it turns on designMode, applies a background colour and then switches designMode off again.
UPDATE
Fixed to work in IE 9.
UPDATE 12 September 2013
Here's a link detailing a method for removing highlights created by this method:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8106283/96100
function makeEditableAndHighlight(colour) {
var range, sel = window.getSelection();
if (sel.rangeCount && sel.getRangeAt) {
range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
}
document.designMode = "on";
if (range) {
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
}
// Use HiliteColor since some browsers apply BackColor to the whole block
if (!document.execCommand("HiliteColor", false, colour)) {
document.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour);
}
document.designMode = "off";
}
function highlight(colour) {
var range;
if (window.getSelection) {
// IE9 and non-IE
try {
if (!document.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour)) {
makeEditableAndHighlight(colour);
}
} catch (ex) {
makeEditableAndHighlight(colour)
}
} else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
// IE <= 8 case
range = document.selection.createRange();
range.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour);
}
}

Rangy is a cross-browser range and selection library that solves this problem perfectly with its CSS Class Applier module. I'm using it to implement highlighting across a range of desktop browsers and on iPad and it works perfectly.
Tim Down's answer is great but Rangy spares you from having to write and maintain all that feature detection code yourself.

var userSelection = document.getSelection();
var range = userSelection.getRangeAt(0);
Instead of surroundContent method you can use the appendChild and extractContents methods this way:
let newNode = document.createElement('mark');
newNode.appendChild(range.extractContents());
range.insertNode(newNode);
function markNode() {
if(document.getSelection() && document.getSelection().toString().length){
let range = document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
let newNode = document.createElement('mark');
newNode.appendChild(range.extractContents());
range.insertNode(newNode);
}
else{
alert('please make selection of text to mark');
}
}
function resetContent() {
testMe.innerHTML = `Remember: Read and <strong>stay strong</strong>`;
}
<p id="testMe">Remember: Read and <strong>stay strong</strong></p>
<div><button onclick="markNode()">markNode</button></div>
<div><button onclick="resetContent()">resetContent</button></div>

Could you please elaborate the need of this functionality. If you only want to change the highlight style of the selected text you can use CSS: '::selection'
More Info:
http://www.quirksmode.org/css/selection.html
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS/::selection

Can you try adding a class for the surrounding span and apply hierarchical CSS?
var span = document.createElement("span");
span.className="selection";
rangeObject.surroundContents(span);
In CSS definition,
span.selection, span.selection * {
background-color : yellow;
}
I did not try it. But just guessing that it would work.