input (type="text")NN 2 IE 3 DOM 1  

  

The text object is a form control generated with an input element that has a type attribute set to "text". This object is the primary way of getting a user to enter single lines of text for submission to the server.

 
HTML Equivalent
 
<input type="text">
 
Object Model Reference
 
[window.]document.formName.elementName
[window.]document.forms[i].elements[i]
[window.]document.getElementById("elementID")
 
Object-Specific Properties
 
dataFlddataSrcdefaultValueformmaxLength
namereadOnlysizetypevalue
 
Object-Specific Methods
 
createTextRange( )handleEvent[ ]select( )
 
Object-Specific Event Handler Properties
 
HandlerNNIEDOM
onblur232
onchange232
onfocus232
onkeydown44n/a
onkeypress44n/a
onkeyup44n/a
onselect242
dataFldNN n/a IE 4 DOM n/a  

Read/Write  

Used with IE 4 data binding to associate a remote data source column name to a text object's value property. A datasrc attribute must also be set for the element. Setting both the dataFld and dataSrc properties to empty strings breaks the binding between element and data source. Works only with text file data sources in IE 5/Mac.

 
Example
 
document.myForm.myText.dataFld = "price";
 
Value

Case-sensitive string identifier of the data source column.

 
Default

None.

dataSrcNN n/a IE 4 DOM n/a  

Read/Write  

Used with IE data binding to specify the ID of the page's object element that loads the data source object for remote data access. Content from the data source is specified via the datafld attribute. Setting both the dataFld and dataSrc properties to empty strings breaks the binding between element and data source. Works only with text file data sources in IE 5/Mac.

 
Example
 
document.myForm.myText.dataSrc = "DBSRC3";
 
Value

Case-sensitive string identifier of the data source.

 
Default

None.

defaultValueNN 2 IE 3 DOM 1  

Read-only  

The default text for the text input element, as established by the value attribute.

 
Example
 
var txtObj = document.forms[0].myText;
if (txtObj.value != txtObj.defaultValue ) {
    ...
}
 
Value

String value.

 
Default

None.

formNN 2 IE 3 DOM 1  

Read-only  

Returns a reference to the form element that contains the current element.When processing an event from this element, the event handler function automatically has access to the input element (as the event object's target or srcElement property). By reading the form property, the script can easily access other controls within the same form.

 
Example
 
var theForm = evt.srcElement.form;
 
Value

form element object reference.

 
Default

None.

maxLengthNN 6 IE 4 DOM 1  

Read/Write  

Indicates the maximum number of characters that may be typed into a text input element. In practice, browsers beep or otherwise alert users when a typed character would exceed the maxLength value. There is no innate correlation between the maxLength and size properties. If the maxLength allows for more characters than fit within the specified width of the element, the browser provides horizontal scrolling (albeit awkward for many users) to allow entry and editing of the field.

 
Example
 
document.entryForm.myText.maxLength = 35;
 
Value

Integer value.

 
Default

Unlimited.

nameNN 2 IE 3 DOM 1  

Read/Write  

This is the identifier associated with the form control. The value of this property is submitted as one-half of the name/value pair when the form is submitted to the server. Names are hidden from user view, since control labels are assigned via other means, depending on the control type. Form control names may also be used by script references to the objects. Despite the modern standards' preference for the id attribute, many browsers still require that a form control be assigned a name attribute to allow the control's value to be submitted.

 
Example
 
document.orderForm.myText.name = "lastName";
 
Value

Case-sensitive string identifier that follows the rules of identifier naming: it may contain no whitespace, cannot begin with a numeral, and should avoid punctuation except for the underscore character.

 
Default

None.

readOnlyNN 6 IE 4 DOM 1  

Read-only  

Specifies whether the form element can be edited on the page by the user. A form control that has a readOnly property set to true may still be modified by scripts, even though the user may not alter the content.

 
Example
 
if (document.forms[0].myText.readOnly) {
    ...
}
 
Value

Boolean value: true | false.

 
Default

false

sizeNN 6 IE 4 DOM 1  

Read/Write  

Roughly speaking, indicates the width in characters that the input box should be sized to accommodate. In practice, the browser does not always accurately predict the proper width. See details in the size attribute discussion for the input element in Chapter 8. There is no interaction between the size and maxLength properties for this object.

 
Example
 
document.forms[0].myText.size = 12;
 
Value

Integer.

 
Default

20

typeNN 3 IE 4 DOM 1  

Read-only  

Returns the type of form control element. The value is returned in all lowercase letters. It may be necessary to cycle through all form elements in search of specific types to do some processing on (e.g., emptying all form controls of type "text" while leaving other controls untouched).

 
Example
 
if (document.forms[0].elements[3].type == "text") {
    // process text input type here
}
 
Value

Any of the following constants (as a string): button | checkbox | file | hidden | image | password | radio | reset | select-multiple | select-one | submit | text | textarea.

 
Default

text

valueNN 2 IE 3 DOM 1  

Read/Write  

Indicates the current value associated with the form control that is submitted with the name/value pair for the element. All values are strings, which means that scripts using text field values for some math operations (especially addition) have to convert the strings to numbers via the parseInt( ) or parseFloat( ) functions before performing the math. If you assign a number to a text field's value property, the browser automatically converts its data type to a string.

 
Example
 
document.forms[0].myText.value = "franken";
 
Value

String.

 
Default

None.

createTextRange( )NN n/a IE 4(Win) DOM n/a  

  

Creates a TextRange object from the content of the text object. See the TextRange object for details.

 
Parameters

None.

 
Returned Value

TextRange object.

handleEvent[ ]NN |4| IE n/a DOM n/a  

handleEvent(event)

  

Instructs the object to accept and process the event whose specifications are passed as the parameter to the method. The object must have an event handler for the event type to process the event. Navigator 4 only.

 
Parameters
 
  • A Navigator 4 event object.
 
Returned Value

None.

select( )NN 2 IE 3 DOM 1  

  

Selects all the text displayed in the form element. You should invoke the focus( ) method on the element prior to the select( ) method. Moreover, to ease potential timing problems in IE for Windows, place the focus( ) and select( ) method statements in a separate function, and invoke that function through setTimeout( ), usually with a delay of 0 to 50 milliseconds. This lets the browser catch up with window refreshing tasks before selecting the contents.

 
Parameters

None.

 
Returned Value

None.