CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjqueryajax
RodgerB
RodgerB

Reputation: 8658

jQuery get textarea text

Recently I have started playing with jQuery, and have been following a couple of tutorials. Now I feel slightly competent with using it (it's pretty easy), and I thought it would be cool if I were able to make a 'console' on my webpage (as in, you press the ` key like you do in FPS games, etc.), and then have it Ajax itself back to the server in-order to do stuff.

I originally thought the best way would be to just get the text inside the textarea, and then split it, or should I use the keyup event, convert the keycode returned to an ASCII character, append the character to a string and send the string to the server (then empty the string).

I couldn't find any information on getting text from a textarea, all I got was keyup information. Also, how can I convert the keycode returned to an ASCII character?

Upvotes: 528

Views: 819301

Answers (9)

Kamil Kiełczewski
Kamil Kiełczewski

Reputation: 92677

Read textarea value and code-char conversion:

function keys(e) {
  msg.innerHTML = `last key: ${String.fromCharCode(e.keyCode)}`
  
  if(e.key == 'Enter') {
    console.log('send: ', mycon.value);
    mycon.value='';
    e.preventDefault();
  }
}
Push enter to 'send'<br>
<textarea id='mycon' onkeydown="keys(event)"></textarea>

<div id="msg"></div>

And below nice Quake like console on div-s only :)

enter image description here

document.addEventListener('keyup', keys);

let conShow = false

function keys(e) {
  if (e.code == 'Backquote') {
    conShow = !conShow;
    mycon.classList.toggle("showcon");
  } else {
    if (conShow) {
      if (e.code == "Enter") {
        conTextOld.innerHTML+= '<br>' + conText.innerHTML;
        let command=conText.innerHTML.replace(/&nbsp;/g,' ');
        conText.innerHTML='';
        console.log('Send to server:', command); 
      } 
      else if (e.code == "Backspace") {
        conText.innerHTML = conText.innerText.slice(0, -1);
      } else if (e.code == "Space") {
        conText.innerHTML = conText.innerText + '&nbsp;'
      } else {
        conText.innerHTML = conText.innerText + e.key;
      }

    }
  }
}
body {
  margin: 0
}

.con {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: flex-end;
  align-items: flex-start;
  width: 100%;
  height: 90px;
  background: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.4);
  position: fixed;
  top: -90px;
  transition: top 0.5s ease-out 0.2s;
  font-family: monospace;
}

.showcon {
  top: 0px;
}

.conTextOld {
  color: white;
}

.line {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
}

.conText{   color: yellow; }

.carret {
  height: 20px;
  width: 10px;
  background: red;
  margin-left: 1px;
}

.start { color: red; margin-right: 2px}
Click here and Press tilde ` (and Enter for "send")

<div id="mycon" class="con">
  <div id='conTextOld' class='conTextOld'>Hello!</div>
  <div class="line">
    <div class='start'> > </div>
    <div id='conText' class="conText"></div>
    <div class='carret'></div>
  </div>
</div>

Upvotes: 0

user889030
user889030

Reputation: 4764

you can get textarea data by name and id

// by name
<textarea name="comment"></textarea>
let text_area_data = $('textarea[name="comment"]').val();

// by id
<textarea id="comment" name="comment"></textarea>
let text_area_data = $('textarea#comment').val();

Upvotes: 6

Abolfazl Miadian
Abolfazl Miadian

Reputation: 3159

the best way: $('#myTextBox').val('new value').trim();

Upvotes: 3

p3drosola
p3drosola

Reputation: 5885

You should have a div that just contains the console messages, that is, previous commands and their output. And underneath put an input or textarea that just holds the command you are typing.

-------------------------------
| consle output ...           |
| more output                 |
| prevous commands and data   |
-------------------------------
> This is an input box.

That way you just send the value of the input box to the server for processing, and append the result to the console messages div.

Upvotes: 24

Thomas Koelle
Thomas Koelle

Reputation: 3752

Where it is often the text function you use (e.g. in divs etc) then for text area it is val

get:

$('#myTextBox').val();

set:

$('#myTextBox').val('new value');

Upvotes: 47

eric
eric

Reputation: 71

Methinks the word "console" is causing the confusion.

If you want to emulate an old-style full/half duplex console, you'd use something like this:

$('console').keyup(function(event){
    $.get("url", { keyCode: event.which }, ... );
    return true;
});

event.which has the key that was pressed. For backspace handling, event.which === 8.

Upvotes: 7

RodgerB
RodgerB

Reputation: 8658

I have figured out that I can convert the keyCode of the event to a character by using the following function:

var char = String.fromCharCode(v_code);

From there I would then append the character to a string, and when the enter key is pressed send the string to the server. I'm sorry if my question seemed somewhat cryptic, and the title meaning something almost completely off-topic, it's early in the morning and I haven't had breakfast yet ;).

Thanks for all your help guys.

Upvotes: 8

Eran Galperin
Eran Galperin

Reputation: 86805

Why would you want to convert key strokes to text? Add a button that sends the text inside the textarea to the server when clicked. You can get the text using the value attribute as the poster before has pointed out, or using jQuery's API:

$('input#mybutton').click(function() {
    var text = $('textarea#mytextarea').val();
    //send to server and process response
});

Upvotes: 763

sblundy
sblundy

Reputation: 61434

Normally, it's the value property

testArea.value

Or is there something I'm missing in what you need?

Upvotes: 14

Related Questions