Click button copy to clipboard using jQuery

Question

How do I copy the text inside a div to the clipboard? I have a div and need to add a link which will add the text to the clipboard. Is there a solution for this?

<p class="content">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s</p>

<a class="copy-text">copy Text</a>

After I click copy text, then I press Ctrl + V, it must be pasted.

Answer 1

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
If you don't want the text-to-be-coppied to be visible:

jQuery:

$('button.copyButton').click(function(){
    $(this).siblings('input.linkToCopy').select();      
    document.execCommand("copy");
});

HTML:

<button class="copyButton">click here to copy</button>
<input class="linkToCopy" value="TEXT TO COPY"
style="position: absolute; z-index: -999; opacity: 0;"><input>

Answer 2

There is another non-Flash way (apart from the Clipboard API mentioned in jfriend00's answer). You need to select the text and then execute the command copy to copy to the clipboard whatever text is currently selected on the page.

For example, this function will copy the content of the passed element into the clipboard (updated with suggestion in the comments from PointZeroTwo):

function copyToClipboard(element) {
    var $temp = $("<input>");
    $("body").append($temp);
    $temp.val($(element).text()).select();
    document.execCommand("copy");
    $temp.remove();
}

This is how it works:

1. Creates a temporary hidden text field.
2. Copies the content of the element to that text field.
3. Selects the content of the text field.
4. Executes the command copy like: document.execCommand("copy").
5. Removes the temporary text field.

You can see a quick demo here:

function copyToClipboard(element) {
  var $temp = $("<input>");
  $("body").append($temp);
  $temp.val($(element).text()).select();
  document.execCommand("copy");
  $temp.remove();
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<p id="p1">P1: I am paragraph 1</p>
<p id="p2">P2: I am a second paragraph</p>
<button onclick="copyToClipboard('#p1')">Copy P1</button>
<button onclick="copyToClipboard('#p2')">Copy P2</button>
<br/><br/><input type="text" placeholder="Paste here for test" />

The main issue is that not all browsers support this feature at the moment, but you can use it on the main ones from:

• Chrome 43
• Internet Explorer 10
• Firefox 41
• Safari 10

---

Update 1: This can be achieved also with a pure JavaScript solution (no jQuery):

function copyToClipboard(elementId) {

  // Create a "hidden" input
  var aux = document.createElement("input");

  // Assign it the value of the specified element
  aux.setAttribute("value", document.getElementById(elementId).innerHTML);

  // Append it to the body
  document.body.appendChild(aux);

  // Highlight its content
  aux.select();

  // Copy the highlighted text
  document.execCommand("copy");

  // Remove it from the body
  document.body.removeChild(aux);

}

<p id="p1">P1: I am paragraph 1</p>
<p id="p2">P2: I am a second paragraph</p>
<button onclick="copyToClipboard('p1')">Copy P1</button>
<button onclick="copyToClipboard('p2')">Copy P2</button>
<br/><br/><input type="text" placeholder="Paste here for test" />

Notice that we pass the id without the # now.

As madzohan reported in the comments below, there is some strange issue with the 64-bit version of Google Chrome in some cases (running the file locally). This issue seems to be fixed with the non-jQuery solution above.

Madzohan tried in Safari and the solution worked but using document.execCommand('SelectAll') instead of using .select() (as specified in the chat and in the comments below).

As PointZeroTwo points out in the comments, the code could be improved so it would return a success/failure result. You can see a demo on this jsFiddle.

---

UPDATE: COPY KEEPING THE TEXT FORMAT

As a user pointed out in the Spanish version of StackOverflow, the solutions listed above work perfectly if you want to copy the content of an element literally, but they don't work that great if you want to paste the copied text with format (as it is copied into a input type="text", the format is "lost").

A solution for that would be to copy into a content editable div and then copy it using the execCommand in a similar way. Here there is an example - click on the copy button and then paste into the content editable box below:

function copy(element_id){
  var aux = document.createElement("div");
  aux.setAttribute("contentEditable", true);
  aux.innerHTML = document.getElementById(element_id).innerHTML;
  aux.setAttribute("onfocus", "document.execCommand('selectAll',false,null)"); 
  document.body.appendChild(aux);
  aux.focus();
  document.execCommand("copy");
  document.body.removeChild(aux);
}

#target {
  width:400px;
  height:100px;
  border:1px solid #ccc;
}

<p id="demo"><b>Bold text</b> and <u>underlined text</u>.</p>
<button onclick="copy('demo')">Copy Keeping Format</button> 

<div id="target" contentEditable="true"></div>

And in jQuery, it would be like this:

function copy(selector){
  var $temp = $("<div>");
  $("body").append($temp);
  $temp.attr("contenteditable", true)
       .html($(selector).html()).select()
       .on("focus", function() { document.execCommand('selectAll',false,null) })
       .focus();
  document.execCommand("copy");
  $temp.remove();
}

#target {
  width:400px;
  height:100px;
  border:1px solid #ccc;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<p id="demo"><b>Bold text</b> and <u>underlined text</u>.</p>
<button onclick="copy('#demo')">Copy Keeping Format</button> 

<div id="target" contentEditable="true"></div>

Answer 3

<div class="form-group">
    <label class="font-normal MyText">MyText to copy</label>&nbsp;
    <button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-xs btnCopy" data="MyText">Copy</button>
</div>


$(".btnCopy").click(function () {
        var element = $(this).attr("data");
        copyToClipboard($('.' + element));
  });

function copyToClipboard(element) {
    var $temp = $("<input>");
    $("body").append($temp);
    $temp.val($(element).text()).select();
    document.execCommand("copy");
    $temp.remove();
}

Answer 4

The text to copy is in text input,like: <input type="text" id="copyText" name="copyText"> and, on button click above text should get copied to clipboard,so button is like:<button type="submit" id="copy_button" data-clipboard-target='copyText'>Copy</button> Your script should be like:

<script language="JavaScript">
$(document).ready(function() {
var clip = new ZeroClipboard($("#copy_button"), {
  moviePath: "ZeroClipboard.swf"
}); 
});

</script>

For CDN files

• (zeroclipboard.swf):
• (zeroclipboard.js):

note: ZeroClipboard.swf and ZeroClipboard.js" file should be in the same folder as your file using this functionality is, OR you have to include like we include <script src=""></script> on our pages.

Answer 5

Even better approach without flash or any other requirements is clipboard.js. All you need to do is add data-clipboard-target="#toCopyElement" on any button, initialize it new Clipboard('.btn'); and it will copy the content of DOM with id toCopyElement to clipboard. This is a snippet that copy the text provided in your question via a link.

One limitation though is that it does not work on safari, but it works on all other browser including mobile browsers as it does not use flash

$(function(){
  new Clipboard('.copy-text');
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/clipboard.js/1.5.12/clipboard.min.js"></script>

<p id="content">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s</p>

<a class="copy-text" data-clipboard-target="#content" href="#">copy Text</a>

Answer 6

With Line Breaks (Extention of the Answer from Alvaro Montoro)

var ClipboardHelper = {

    copyElement: function ($element)
    {
       this.copyText($element.text())
    },
    copyText:function(text) // Linebreaks with \n
    {
        var $tempInput =  $("<textarea>");
        $("body").append($tempInput);
        $tempInput.val(text).select();
        document.execCommand("copy");
        $tempInput.remove();
    }
};

ClipboardHelper.copyText('Hello\nWorld');
ClipboardHelper.copyElement($('body h1').first());