Chapter 36. Text-Related Form Objects
IN THIS CHAPTER
Capturing and modifying text field contents
Triggering action by entering text
Capturing individual keystroke events
The document object model for forms includes four text-related user interface objects—text, password
, and hidden
input element objects, plus the textarea
element object. All four of these objects are used for entry, display, or temporary storage of text data. Although all these objects can have text placed in them by default as the page loads, scripts can also modify the contents of these objects. Importantly, all but the hidden
objects retain their user- or script-modified content during a soft reload (for example, clicking the Reload button) in Mozilla and Internet Explorer; hidden
objects revert to their default values on all reloads.
A more obvious difference between the hidden
object and the rest is that its invisibility removes it from the realm of user events and actions. Therefore, the range of scripted possibilities is much smaller for the hidden
object.
The persistence of text
and textarea
object data through reloads (and window resizes), however, is neither reliable enough nor consistent enough across all modern browsers to be used in lieu of a temporary cookie. This is a change from past implementations.
Text Input Object
For HTML element properties, methods, and event handlers, see Chapter 26, "Generic HTML Element Objects."
Properties | Methods | Event Handlers |
---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Get JavaScript® Bible, Seventh Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.