Insert text into textarea with jQuery

Question

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.

Answer 1

I think this would be better

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

Answer 2

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 3

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 4

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 5

This is similar to the answer given by @panchicore with a minor bug fixed.

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

Answer 6

Here is a quick solution that works in jQuery 1.9+:

a) Get caret position:

function getCaret(el) {
        if (el.prop("selectionStart")) {
            return el.prop("selectionStart");
        } else if (document.selection) {
            el.focus();

            var r = document.selection.createRange();
            if (r == null) {
                return 0;
            }

            var re = el.createTextRange(),
                    rc = re.duplicate();
            re.moveToBookmark(r.getBookmark());
            rc.setEndPoint('EndToStart', re);

            return rc.text.length;
        }
        return 0;
    };

b) Append text at caret position:

function appendAtCaret($target, caret, $value) {
        var value = $target.val();
        if (caret != value.length) {
            var startPos = $target.prop("selectionStart");
            var scrollTop = $target.scrollTop;
            $target.val(value.substring(0, caret) + ' ' + $value + ' ' + value.substring(caret, value.length));
            $target.prop("selectionStart", startPos + $value.length);
            $target.prop("selectionEnd", startPos + $value.length);
            $target.scrollTop = scrollTop;
        } else if (caret == 0)
        {
            $target.val($value + ' ' + value);
        } else {
            $target.val(value + ' ' + $value);
        }
    };

c) Example

$('textarea').each(function() {
  var $this = $(this);
  $this.click(function() {
    //get caret position
    var caret = getCaret($this);

    //append some text
    appendAtCaret($this, caret, 'Some text');
  });
});