Solution 1 by Julian Turner

[Simon]

Julian, you wrote about a possible solution for my problem, it's a way I
never thought about, it looks perfect.
But onfortunately, I don't know enough about javascript to convert your
solution into a piece of programming.
Could you please help me?
What are the lines, commands, events, for recognizing no further movements?

At the bottom of this message is the description of rous solution.

Thanks,
Simon

I want to know when the carot(cursor) is in the first row of the
textarea(although rows do not really exist, i know) and I want to know
when
the cursor is in the last row of the textarea.

Why do I want to know that?
Because when the cursor is in the first row and the keycode for "arrow-up"
event fires, the focus has to leave the textarea and go to the field above
it.
Same goes for the last row, when the arrow-down is pressed it has to go to
the next field.

And when it's in between the first and last line, nothing should happen
but
goiing up and down the textarea.

Thanks,
Simon

Hi

Two possibilities occurr to me (both non-trivial).

Firstly, I assume that by "last" row, you are including the fact that
the textarea might overflow the actual visual box and so scroll, and
so you are interested in the very end of the text within the textarea.

Solution 1
----------

One solution might be to test whether the cursor "moved". I.e. if you
are at the top or bottom of the text within the text area, pressing
the up or down arrow will produce no further movement. So you could
capture its previous posiition, compare with the new, and if no
change, "assume" that you are in the first or last row.

 

[Julian Turner]

Julian, you wrote about a possible solution for my problem, it's a way I
never thought about, it looks perfect.
But onfortunately, I don't know enough about javascript to convert your
solution into a piece of programming.
Could you please help me?
What are the lines, commands, events, for recognizing no further movements?

At the bottom of this message is the description of rous solution.

Thanks,
Simon

Hi Simon

You are in luck. I tried it out myself, out of interest.

Different browsers have different ways of handling TEXTAREAS and
cursors, so it is not so easy to write cross-browser code, but not
impossible.

The following is a solution for Internet Explorer only, which has its
"TextRange" and "document.selection" model.

For Firefox and Opera you need to look-up the "selectionStart" and
"selectionEnd" properties of the textarea object, and understand how
"events" are handled slightly differently, but the principles should
be the same. If I get round to it, I try and make one myself.

The onclick event is important to capture cursor position when you
click in the textarea.

I haven't fully tested the solution in all scenarios.

<TEXTAREA id=mytext onkeyup=test_keyup() style="FONT-SIZE: 13px;
WIDTH: 300px; HEIGHT: 100px" onclick=test_click()>Line1
Line2
Line3
Line4</TEXTAREA>

var lastRange = null;

function test_click()
{
var event = window.event;

if (document.selection)
{
lastRange = document.selection.createRange();
}
}

function test_keyup()
{
var event = window.event;

var keyCode = event.keyCode;

if (keyCode == 38 && document.selection)
{
var range = document.selection.createRange();

if (lastRange === null)
{
lastRange = range;
}
else if (lastRange.isEqual(range))
{
alert("At top");
event.returnValue = false;
}
else
{
lastRange = range;
}
}

if (keyCode == 40 && document.selection)
{
var range = document.selection.createRange();

if (lastRange === null)
{
lastRange = range;
}
else if (lastRange.isEqual(range))
{
alert("At bottom");
event.returnValue = false;
}
else
{
lastRange = range;
}
}
}


Regards

Julian

 

[Simon]

This is really great! It works perfectly. Only one question..
I use your script to tab through the textarea as you know. (With arrows).
I've changed your alertmessage (at bottom, at top) into a line that sets the
focus on the next or last field.
But when the textarea is empty at first..this will always be executed. (So
when i leave the field above, focus comes into textarea and directly the
script (at bottom) is executed so it leaves the textarea and goes to the
next field.
I use the onkeydown-event.

Can you adjust your script just a little bit so that when the textarea still
is empty, the focus stays?
This is what i have:
<script language="javascript">
var lastRange = null;
function entertab3(ctrl) {
var event = window.event;
var keyCode = event.keyCode;
if (keyCode == 38 && document.selection)
{
var range = document.selection.createRange();
if (lastRange === null)
{
lastRange = range;
}
else if (lastRange.isEqual(range))
{
selectForm.A2.focus();
event.returnValue = false;
}
else
{
lastRange = range;
}
}
if (keyCode == 40 && document.selection)
{
var range = document.selection.createRange();
if (lastRange === null)
{
lastRange = range;
}
else if (lastRange.isEqual(range))
{
selectForm.A4.focus();
event.returnValue = false;
}
else
{
lastRange = range;
}
}
}
</script

Thanks, Simon

 

[Julian Turner]

Can you adjust your script just a little bit so that when the textarea still
is empty, the focus stays?

Glad it works for you.

I'll try to have a look at this point.

Regards


Julian