Develop Reference

Javascript: programmatically change onfocus function

I have several text boxes that can auto-fill with data and I am using a javascript function to clear the text box one time, then revert to a javascript function that only clears when certain text is input.
For instance: A text box with standard input as "ADDRESS" will be auto-filled with "ABC123" then onfocus be cleared. If the text box remains empty, then onblur, it will return to "ADDRESS"
This is similar to the question at Change an element's onfocus handler with Javascript? but I couldn't get it to work. Any suggestions?
My text boxes are just ASP.NET text boxes and the onfocus/onblur events are set in the code behind:
<asp:TextBox ID="txtAddress" Text="ADDRESS" runat="server" CssClass="txtboxwrong" />
Code Behind:
txtAddress.Attributes.Add("onFocus", "clearOnce(this,'ADDRESS');")
txtAddress.Attributes.Add("onBlur", "restoreText(this,'ADDRESS');")
My javascript is as follows:
function clearText(obj, deftext, defclass, defvalue) {
if (obj.value == deftext) {
if (!defvalue) { defvalue = '' }
obj.value = defvalue;
if (!defclass) { defclass = 'txtbox' }
obj.className = defclass;
}
};
function restoreText(obj, deftext, defclass, defvalue) {
if (!defvalue) { defvalue = '' }
if (obj.value == defvalue || obj.value == '') {
obj.value = deftext;
if (!defclass) { defclass = 'txtboxwrong' }
obj.className = defclass;
}
};
function clearOnce(obj, deftext) {
obj.value = '';
obj.className = 'txtbox';
obj.onfocus = function () { clearText(obj, deftext); };
};
EDIT:
Thanks to #rescuecreative, I have fixed the probem. By returning the onfocus change in clearOnce, it sets the element's onfocus to the right function and works properly! Edit below:
function clearOnce(obj, deftext) {
obj.value = '';
obj.className = 'txtbox';
return function () { clearText(obj, deftext); };
};

Can your asp textbox use the placeholder attribute? In html5, the placeholder attribute automatically creates the exact functionality you're looking for.
<input type="text" placeholder="ADDRESS" />
The above text field will show the word "ADDRESS" until focused at which point it will empty out and allow the user to type. If the user leaves the field and it remains empty, the placeholder reappears. If you can't depend on html5, there is a JavaScript plugin that will create that functionality in browsers that don't support it natively.

It seems like you wanted to do something similler to watermarks. You can achiever it in much simpler way. Try this.
function clearOnce(obj, deftext) {
if(obj.value == deftext) {
obj.value = '';
obj.className = 'txtbox';
}
}
function restoreText(obj, deftext) {
if(obj.value == '') {
obj.value = deftext;
obj.className = 'txtboxwrong';
}
}

Ideally you would just use the placeholder attribute, but that may not be supported on older browsers. If you can use jQuery, something like this would work for you:
$('[placeholder]').focus(function() {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.val('');
input.removeClass('placeholder');
}
}).blur(function() {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() == '' || input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.addClass('placeholder');
input.val(input.attr('placeholder'));
}
}).blur();
If nothing is ever entered into the field, the code below will ensure the placeholder text doesn't get submitted with the form:
$('[placeholder]').parents('form').submit(function() {
$(this).find('[placeholder]').each(function() {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.val('');
}
})
});

val() returns Placeholder value instead of the actual value in IE8,9 when the field is empty

Placeholder attribute shown below works fine in firefox but if val() is called when the field is empty it returns the placeholder value instead of the actual value in the text.
JSFiddle - http://jsfiddle.net/Jrfwr/2/
<input id="tlt" type="text" placeholder="Enter Title" />
JSCode
function placeHolderFallBack() {
if ("placeholder" in document.createElement("input")) {
return;
}
else {
$('[placeholder]').focus(function () {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.val('');
input.removeClass('placeholder');
}
}).blur(function () {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() == '' || input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.addClass('placeholder');
input.val(input.attr('placeholder'));
}
}).blur();
$('[placeholder]').parents('form').submit(function () {
$(this).find('[placeholder]').each(function () {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.val('');
}
})
});
}
}

You could override the val() method but I don't like doing that :D
I wrote a simple pVal() function which does the job
$.fn.pVal = function(){
var $this = $(this),
val = $this.eq(0).val();
if(val == $this.attr('placeholder'))
return '';
else
return val;
}
$(function(){
alert($('input').val())
alert($('input').pVal())
});​
http://jsfiddle.net/W7JKt/3/

In your JSFiddle code you get the value of the textbox in a BUTTON CLICK event... and your code that checks if the current value of the textbox is equal to the placeholder executes in the FORM SUBMIT event.
So... the problem is that the BUTTON's CLICK event executes before the FORM's SUBMIT event.
This code shows an example of how to get the correct value
Hope that helps.

Its to do with HTML 5. Please see this article.
http://www.cssnewbie.com/cross-browser-support-for-html5-placeholder-text-in-forms/

Text labels in textbox being passed onsubmit

I found this useful little method of displaying field titles within the text fields themselves.
http://viralpatel.net/blogs/2009/09/default-text-label-textbox-javascript-jquery.html
Only problem is that if the fields aren't completed by the user then the title values get submitted.
Could anyone tell me how to add a onsubmit check to make sure we don't submit default text?
This is the javascript:
$('input[type="text"]').each(function () {
this.value = $(this).attr('title');
$(this).addClass('text-label');
$(this).focus(function () {
if (this.value == $(this).attr('title')) {
this.value = '';
$(this).removeClass('text-label');
}
});
$(this).blur(function () {
if (this.value == '') {
this.value = $(this).attr('title');
$(this).addClass('text-label');
}
});
});
Many thanks...

Something like the following should work:
$('form').submit(
function(e){
$(this).find('input, select, textarea').each(
function(){
if ($(this).val() == this.title){
$(this).val(''); // removes the value
// or prevent form submission:
// return false;
}
});
});

Showing Placeholder text for password field in IE

I know there is a ton of placeholder questions, but I am trying to perfect mine.
My current code works great and does what it's supposed to. The problem is, when I go to place the "password" placeholder, it puts the placeholder in the masking characters. Any ideas on how to get around that?
$(function() {
if(!$.support.placeholder) {
var active = document.activeElement;
$(':text').focus(function () {
if ($(this).attr('placeholder') != '' && $(this).val() == $(this).attr('placeholder')) {
$(this).val('').removeClass('hasPlaceholder');
}
}).blur(function () {
if ($(this).attr('placeholder') != '' && ($(this).val() == '' || $(this).val() == $(this).attr('placeholder'))) {
$(this).val($(this).attr('placeholder')).addClass('hasPlaceholder');
}
});
$(':text').blur();
$(active).focus();
$('form').submit(function () {
$(this).find('.hasPlaceholder').each(function() { $(this).val(''); });
});
var active = document.activeElement;
$(':password').focus(function () {
if ($(this).attr('placeholder') != '' && $(this).val() == $(this).attr('placeholder')) {
$(this).val('').removeClass('hasPlaceholder');
}
}).blur(function () {
if ($(this).attr('placeholder') != '' && ($(this).val() == '' || $(this).val() == $(this).attr('placeholder'))) {
$(this).val($(this).attr('placeholder')).addClass('hasPlaceholder');
}
});
$(':password').blur();
$(active).focus();
$('form').submit(function () {
$(this).find('.hasPlaceholder').each(function() { $(this).val(''); });
});
}
});
My field for the pass:
<div id="loginform_pass"><input class="login" tabindex="2" type="password" placeholder="Password" name="password" maxlength="30"></div>

You could also try this... it detects that the browser does not have support for placeholder and works for all input types
function FauxPlaceholder() {
if(!ElementSupportAttribute('input','placeholder')) {
$("input[placeholder]").each(function() {
var $input = $(this);
$input.after('<input id="'+$input.attr('id')+'-faux" style="display:none;" type="text" value="' + $input.attr('placeholder') + '" />');
var $faux = $('#'+$input.attr('id')+'-faux');
$faux.show().attr('class', $input.attr('class')).attr('style', $input.attr('style'));
$input.hide();
$faux.focus(function() {
$faux.hide();
$input.show().focus();
});
$input.blur(function() {
if($input.val() === '') {
$input.hide();
$faux.show();
}
});
});
}
}
function ElementSupportAttribute(elm, attr) {
var test = document.createElement(elm);
return attr in test;
}

Could you just swap out the original text field with a password field?
$('#pass').focus(
function(){
var pass = $('<input id="pass" type="password">');
$(this).replaceWith(pass);
pass.focus();
}
);
<input id="pass" type="text" value="Passowrd">
http://jsfiddle.net/UrNFV/

I ran into this problem with IE before. Here's my solution :)
http://jsfiddle.net/mNchn/

If I'm understanding this right, you want the field to say "Password" when nothing has been typed into it; however, "Password" gets displayed as "********".
A decent fix to that (which also degrades gracefully, depending on how you code it) is to:
Put a LABEL before the password INPUT. Set the LABEL's text to "Password", and set its for attribute to point to the INPUT's ID, so that the INPUT is focused when the LABEL is clicked.
Use CSS to position the LABEL on top of the INPUT, so that they overlap, and it looks like "Password" is inside of the INPUT.
Make it so that the LABEL is only visible when some CSS class (.showMe, for example) is applied to it.
Use JavaScript to hide the LABEL
...if the INPUT's value is an empty string
...or if the user has selected (focused) the INPUT.

Depending on whether or not you want to be able to dynamically change the text inside the placeholder, your simplest solution might be to have the placeholder text be an image.
input {
background: url(_img/placeholder.png) 50% 5px no-repeat;
.
.
.
}
input:focus {
background: none;
}
Clearly there are many different ways of using this method, and you will have to use some kind of a fix to get :focus to work on the browsers that don't support it.

Here my plugin :
if(jQuery.support.placeholder==false){
// No default treatment
$('[placeholder]').focus(function(){
if($(this).val()==$(this).attr('placeholder'))
$(this).val('');
if($(this).data('type')=='password')
$(this).get(0).type='password';
});
$('[placeholder]').blur(function(){
if($(this).val()==''){
if($(this).attr('type')=='password'){
$(this).data('type','password').get(0).type='text';
}
$(this).val($(this).attr('placeholder'));
}
}).blur();
}

I had the same problem so i wrote a little plugin
$.fn.passLabel = function(){
var
T = $(this),
P = T.find('input[type=password]'),
V = pass.val();
P.attr('type','text');
P.focus(function(){
if(V == "")
P.attr('type','password');
});
}
now you just call it for the from at it will find all input fields with the password
attribute.
eg.
$('form').passLabel();

A bit late however same here, i was working on the issue too IE9 doesnot show the password placeholder as text, in almost all the answers on the internet some suggest changing the type some but if u do this u will have another issue on the login page like when you will see with double click on password field as its type changed to text from password, btw it works with prop. e.g. prop("type","password") if you want to change the type of an element.
on the other hand i think most answers come from a single solution its like focus and blur actions of elements. but when u apply this plugin other text fields will also be effected there is no specific or i can say generlized solution, i have still a minor issue on the login page with the password field but its showing the text correctly. anyway. here is how i have configured, copied,changed and/or another inherited anwers here.
(function($) {
$.fn.placeholder = function() {
$('input[placeholder], textarea[placeholder]').focus(function() {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() === input.attr('placeholder')) {
if (input.prop("id") === "password") {
input.prop("type", "password");
}
input.val('');
input.removeClass('placeholder');
}
}).blur(function() {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() === '' || input.val() === input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.addClass('placeholder');
if (input.prop("type") === "password") {
input.prop("type", "text");
}
input.val(input.attr('placeholder'));
}
}).blur().parents('form').submit(function() {
$(this).find('input[placeholder], textarea[placeholder]').each(function() {
var input = $(this);
if (input.val() === input.attr('placeholder')) {
input.val('');
}
});
});
};
})(jQuery);
still an active prolem ... :D

Form input show hide default value on focus

I am using the below code to show hide the default input value on focus. However, I am going to be using a few forms on one page and dont really want to have create this js for each input field, pretty time consuming and probably a bit too much js.
Html
<input type="text" class="sb" value="Search CT..."/>
Javascript
//search box
$("input.sb").focus(function(){
if ( $(this).val() == "Search CT...")
$(this).val('');
});
$("input.sb").blur(function(){
if ( $(this).val() == "")
$(this).val('Search CT...');
});
I was wondering if there was a way to create some generic JS to show/hide the default value, regardless of its content which would work on all form inputs??
Hope this makes sense, thanks very much.

This code will look through all your text input elements and textarea elements on page load. It will store their original values using $.data. It will then do the emptying and refilling as appropriate.
$(document).ready(function(){
$('form input:text, form textarea').each(function(){
$.data(this, 'default', this.value);
}).focus(function(){
if ($.data(this, 'default') == this.value) {
this.value = '';
}
}).blur(function(){
if (this.value == '') {
this.value = $.data(this, 'default');
}
});
});

Try below code -
$(document).ready(function(){
var value = '';
$("input.sb").focus(function(){
value = $(this).val();
if (value != ""){
$(this).val('');
}
});
$("input.sb").blur(function(){
if ( $(this).val() == ""){
$(this).val(value);
}
});
});

Looks like you're using jQuery. Have you tried using a plugin?
Here's one that will do what you need:
http://plugins.jquery.com/content/default-text-inputtext-fields-required-rule-modification

You could create a map, more or less like this:
Javascript
function setEvents( id, txt ){
$("#" + id)
.focus(function(){
if ( $(this).val() == txt) $(this).val('');
})
.blur(function(){
if ( $(this).val() == "") $(this).val(txt);
});
}
var map = {
input1: "your text",
input2: "other text"
};
for(var i in map){
setEvents( i, map[i] );
}
Where the keys of the map object represent input ID's and the values represent the default value

$("input").focus(function(){
$(this).val('');
});
or give a common class for each input field