Textinput Widget

Textinput Widgetversion added: 1.0

Description: Creates a textinput widget for textinput, textarea or search input

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Events

Text Input

Text inputs and textareas are coded with standard HTML elements, then enhanced by jQuery Mobile to make them more attractive and useable on a mobile device.

To collect standard alphanumeric text, use an input with a type="text" attribute. Set the for attribute of the label to match the id of the input so they are semantically associated. It's possible to accessibly hide the label if it's not desired in the page layout, but we require that it is present in the markup for semantic and accessibility reasons.

Theming

The textinput widget uses the jQuery Mobile CSS framework to style its look and feel. If textinput specific styling is needed, the following CSS class names can be used for overrides or as keys for the classes option:

  • ui-textinput: The outermost container for textinput. ui-textinput-search or ui-textinput-text classes will be applied if textinput has type='search' or not accordingly. ui-textinput-clear-button class will be applied when clearBtn option is true. ui-textinput-autogrow class will be applied when autogrow option is true.
    • ui-textinput-search-icon: Search icon's class when type of textinput is search
<label for="basic">Text Input:</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="basic" value="">

This will produce a basic text input. The default styles set the width of the input to 100% of the parent container and stack the label on a separate line.

Mini version

For a more compact version that is useful in toolbars and tight spaces, add the data-mini="true" attribute to the element to create a mini version.

<label for="basic">Text Input:</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="basic" value="" data-mini="true">

This will produce an input that is not as tall as the standard version and has a smaller text size.

Clear button option

The clearButton extension provides the clearBtn option.

To add a clear button to any input (like the search input), add the data-clear-btn="true" attribute. The text for this clear button can be customized via the data-clear-btn-text="clear input" attribute. Search buttons have the clear button by default and cannot be controlled by this option. Note that this is available for all the input types below except for those coded via textarea elements.

<label for="clear-demo">Text Input:</label>
<input type="text" name="clear" id="clear-demo" value="" data-clear-btn="true">

This markup creates a text input with a clear button that becomes visible as soon as a character has been entered.

Field containers

Optionally wrap the text input in a container with class ui-field-contain to help visually group it in a longer form.

Note: The data- attribute data-role="fieldcontain" is deprecated as of jQuery Mobile 1.4.0 and will be removed in 1.5.0. Add class ui-field-contain instead.

<div class="ui-field-contain">
  <label for="name">Text Input:</label>
  <input type="text" name="name" id="name" value="">
</div>

The text input is now displayed like this:

More text input types

In jQuery Mobile, you can use existing and new HTML5 input types such as password, email, tel, number, and more. Some type values are rendered differently across browsers. For example, Chrome renders the range input as a slider. jQuery Mobile standardizes the appearance of range and search by dynamically changing their type to text. You can configure which input types are degraded to text with the page plugin's options.

One major advantage of using these more specific input types if that on mobile devices, specialized keyboards that speed data entry are offered in place of the standard text keyboard. Try the following inputs on a mobile device to see which display custom keyboards on various platforms.

Search input outside the page

jQuery Mobile-styled textinput widgets can be placed outside jQuery Mobile pages. To do so, specify their input type as type="text", add the attribute data-type="search", and manually call the textinput plugin on the element.

The markup:

<input id="the-search-input" type="text" data-type="search">

The script:

$( function() {
  $( "#the-search-input" ).textinput();
});

Textareas

For multi-line text inputs, use a textarea element. The autogrow extension provides functionality for auto-growing the height of the textarea to avoid the need for an internal scrollbar.

Set the for attribute of the label to match the id of the textarea so they are semantically associated, and wrap them in a div with class ui-field-contain to group them.

Note: The data- attribute data-role="fieldcontain" is deprecated as of jQuery Mobile 1.4.0 and will be removed in 1.5.0. Add class ui-field-contain instead.

<label for="textarea-a">Textarea:</label>
<textarea name="textarea" id="textarea-a">
I'm a basic textarea. If this is pre-populated with content, the height will be automatically adjusted to fit without needing to scroll. That is a pretty handy usability feature.
</textarea>

This will produce a basic textarea with the width set to 100% of the parent container and the label stacked on a separate line. The textarea will grow to fit new lines as you type:

<div class="ui-field-contain">
<label for="textarea">Textarea:</label>
  <textarea name="textarea" id="textarea"></textarea>
</div>

The textarea is displayed like this and will grow to fit new lines as you type:

Calling the textinput plugin

This plugin will auto initialize on any page that contains a textarea or any of the text input types listed above without any need for a data-role attribute in the markup. However, if needed, you can directly call the textinput plugin on any selector, just like any jQuery plugin:

$( "input" ).textinput();

Degraded input types

The location of the map of input type degradations in the page plugin is deprecated as of 1.4.0. As of 1.5.0 the input type degradation functionality will be implemented by the degradeInputs module.

jQuery Mobile degrades several HTML5 input types back to type=text or type=number after adding enhanced controls. For example, inputs with a type of range are enhanced with a custom slider control, and their type is set to number to offer a usable form input alongside that slider. Inputs with a type of search are degraded back to type=text after we add our own themeable search input styling.

The degradeInputs module contains a list of input types that are set to either true which means they'll degrade to type=text, false which means they'll be left alone, or a string such as "number", which means they'll be converted to that type (such as the case of type=range).

You can configure which types are changed via $.mobile.degradeInputs, which has properties: color, date, datetime, "datetime-local", email, month, number, range, search, tel, time, url, and week. Be sure to configure this inside an event handler bound to the mobileinit event, so that it applies to the first page as well as subsequent pages that are loaded.

Search Input

Search inputs are a new HTML type styled with pill-shaped corners and an "x" icon to clear the field once you start typing. Start with an input with a type="search" attribute in your markup.

Set the for attribute of the label to match the id of the input so they are semantically associated. It's possible to accessibly hide the label if it's not desired in the page layout, but we require that it is present in the markup for semantic and accessibility reasons.

<label for="search-basic">Search Input:</label>
<input type="search" name="search" id="search-basic" value="">

This will produce a basic search input. The default styles set the width of the input to 100% of the parent container and stack the label on a separate line.

Mini version

For a more compact version that is useful in toolbars and tight spaces, add the data-mini="true" attribute to the element to create a mini version.

<label for="search-mini">Search Input:</label>
<input type="search" name="search-mini" id="search-mini" value="" data-mini="true">

This will produce a search input that is not as tall as the standard version and has a smaller text size.

Field containers

Optionally wrap the search input in a container with tlass ui-field-contain to help visually group it in a longer form.

Note: The data- attribute data-role="fieldcontain" is deprecated as of jQuery Mobile 1.4.0 and will be removed in 1.5.0. Add class ui-field-contain instead.

<div class="ui-field-contain">
  <label for="search-2">Search Input:</label>
  <input type="search" name="search-2" id="search-2" value="">
</div>

The search input is now displayed like this:

Theming

The data-theme attribute can be added to the search input to set the theme to any swatch letter.

Setting the clear button text

The text for the button used to clear the search input of text can be configured for all search inputs by binding to the mobileinit event and setting the $.mobile.textinput.prototype.options.clearBtnText property to a string of your choosing.

This option is provided by the clearButton extension.

Calling the textinput plugin

This plugin will auto-initialize on any page that contains a text input with the type="search" attribute without any need for a data-role attribute in the markup. However, if needed, you can directly call the textinput plugin on a selector, just like any jQuery plugin:

$( ".mySearchInput" ).textinput();

Providing pre-rendered markup

You can improve the load time of your page by providing the markup that the textinput widget would normally create during its initialization.

By providing this markup yourself, and by indicating that you have done so by setting the attribute data-enhanced="true", you instruct the textinput widget to skip these DOM manipulations during instantiation and to assume that the required DOM structure is already present.

When you provide such pre-rendered markup you must also set all the classes that the framework would normally set, and you must also set all data attributes whose values differ from the default to indicate that the pre-rendered markup reflects the non-default value of the corresponding widget option.

The textinput widget wraps input-based widgets in div used for creating the style. textarea elements are not wrapped in such a div.

In the example below, we add the attribute data-corners="false" to the input, because the class ui-corner-all is absent from the wrapper, indicating that the value of the "corners" option should be false.

<label for="pre-rendered-text-field">Pre-rendered input:</label>
<div class="ui-input-text ui-body-inherit ui-shadow-inset">
  <input type="text" data-enhanced="true" data-corners="false" name="pre-rendered-text-field" id="pre-rendered-text-field">
</div>

Options

autogrow

Type: Boolean
Default: true
This option is provided by the autogrow extension.

Whether to update the size of the textarea element upon first appearance, as well as upon a change in the content of the element.

This option applies only to textinput widgets based on textarea elements.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-autogrow="false".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the autogrow option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  autogrow: false
});

Get or set the autogrow option, after initialization:

// Getter
var autogrow = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "autogrow" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "autogrow", false );

classes

Type: Object
Default:
{
        "ui-textinput": "ui-corner-all ui-shadow-inset",
        "ui-textinput-search-icon": "ui-icon ui-alt-icon ui-icon-search",
        "ui-textinput-clear-button": "ui-corner-all"
      }

Specify additional classes to add to the widget's elements. Any of classes specified in the Theming section can be used as keys to override their value. To learn more about this option, check out the learn article about the classes option.

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the classes option specified, changing the theming for the ui-textinput class:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  classes: {
    "ui-textinput": "highlight"
  }
});

Get or set a property of the classes option, after initialization, here reading and changing the theming for the ui-textinput class:

// Getter
var themeClass = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "classes.ui-textinput" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "classes.ui-textinput", "highlight" );

clearBtn

Type: Boolean
Default: false
This option is provided by the clearButton extension.

Adds a clear button to the input when set to true.

This option applies only to textinput widgets based on input elements.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-clear-btn="true".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the clearBtn option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  clearBtn: true
});

Get or set the clearBtn option, after initialization:

// Getter
var clearBtn = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "clearBtn" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "clearBtn", true );

clearBtnText

Type: String
Default: "Clear text"
This option is provided by the clearButton extension.

The text description for the optional clear button, useful for assistive technologies like screen readers.

This option applies only to textinput widgets based on input elements.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-clear-btn-text="Clear value".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the clearBtnText option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  clearBtnText: "Clear value"
});

Get or set the clearBtnText option, after initialization:

// Getter
var clearBtnText = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "clearBtnText" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "clearBtnText", "Clear value" );

corners

Type: Boolean
Default: true
Applies the theme border radius if set to true by adding the class ui-corner-all to the textinput widget's outermost element.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-corners="false".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the corners option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  corners: false
});

Get or set the corners option, after initialization:

// Getter
var corners = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "corners" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "corners", false );

defaults

Type: Boolean
Default: false
Seting this option to true indicates that other widgets options have default values and causes jQuery Mobile's widget autoenhancement code to omit the step where it retrieves option values from data attributes. This can improve startup time.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-defaults="true".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the defaults option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  defaults: true
});

Get or set the defaults option, after initialization:

// Getter
var defaults = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "defaults" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "defaults", true );

disabled

Type: Boolean
Default: false
Disables the textinput if set to true.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-disabled="true".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the disabled option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  disabled: true
});

Get or set the disabled option, after initialization:

// Getter
var disabled = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "disabled" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "disabled", true );

enhanced

Type: Boolean
Default: false
Indicates that the markup necessary for a textinput widget has been provided as part of the original markup.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-enhanced="true".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the enhanced option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  enhanced: true
});

Get or set the enhanced option, after initialization:

// Getter
var enhanced = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "enhanced" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "enhanced", true );

initSelector

Type: Selector
Default: See below

The default initSelector for the textinput widget is:

""input[type='text'], input[type='search'], :jqmData(type='search'), input[type='number'], :jqmData(type='number'), input[type='password'], input[type='email'], input[type='url'], input[type='tel'], textarea, input[type='time'], input[type='date'], input[type='month'], input[type='week'], input[type='datetime'], input[type='datetime-local'], input[type='color'], input:not([type]), input[type='file']""

Note: This option is deprecated in 1.4.0 and will be removed in 1.5.0.
As of jQuery Mobile 1.4.0, the initSelector is no longer a widget option. Instead, it is declared directly on the widget prototype. Thus, you may specify a custom value by handling the mobileinit event and overwriting the initSelector on the prototype:

$( document ).on( "mobileinit", function() {
  $.mobile.textinput.prototype.initSelector = "div.custom";
});

Note: Remember to attach the mobileinit handler after you have loaded jQuery, but before you load jQuery Mobile, because the event is triggered as part of jQuery Mobile's loading process.

The value of this option is a jQuery selector string. The framework selects elements based on the value of this option and instantiates textinput widgets on each of the resulting list of elements.

(version deprecated: 1.4.0)

keyupTimeoutBuffer

Type: Number
Default: 100
This option is provided by the autogrow extension.

The amount of time (in milliseconds) to wait between the occurence of a keystroke and the resizing of the textarea element. If another keystroke occurs within this time, the resizing is postponed by another period of time of the same length.

This option applies only to textinput widgets based on textarea elements.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-keyup-timeout-buffer="150".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the keyupTimeoutBuffer option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  keyupTimeoutBuffer: 150
});

Get or set the keyupTimeoutBuffer option, after initialization:

// Getter
var keyupTimeoutBuffer = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "keyupTimeoutBuffer" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "keyupTimeoutBuffer", 150 );

mini

Type: Boolean
Default: null (false)
If set to true, this will display a more compact version of the textinput that uses less vertical height by applying the ui-mini class to the outermost element of the textinput widget.

Note: mini option is deprecated in 1.5 and will be removed in 1.6

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-mini="true".

preventFocusZoom

Type: Boolean
Default: true on iOS platforms
Attempts to prevent the device from focusing in on the input element when the element receives the focus.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-prevent-focus-zoom="true".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the preventFocusZoom option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  preventFocusZoom: true
});

Get or set the preventFocusZoom option, after initialization:

// Getter
var preventFocusZoom = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "preventFocusZoom" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "preventFocusZoom", true );

theme

Type: String
Default: null, inherited from parent
Sets the color scheme (swatch) for the textinput widget. It accepts a single letter from a-z that maps to the swatches included in your theme.

Possible values: swatch letter (a-z).

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-theme="b".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the theme option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  theme: "b"
});

Get or set the theme option, after initialization:

// Getter
var theme = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "theme" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "theme", "b" );

wrapperClass

Type: String
Default: ""
The value of this option is a string containing a space-separated list of classes to be applied to the outermost element of the textinput widget.

This option is also exposed as a data attribute: data-wrapper-class="true".

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the wrapperClass option specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  wrapperClass: "custom-class"
});

Get or set the wrapperClass option, after initialization:

// Getter
var wrapperClass = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "wrapperClass" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "wrapperClass", "custom-class" );

Methods

destroy()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Removes the textinput functionality completely. This will return the element back to its pre-init state.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the destroy method:

$( ".selector" ).textinput( "destroy" );

disable()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Disables the textinput.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the disable method:

$( ".selector" ).textinput( "disable" );

enable()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Enables the textinput.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the enable method:

$( ".selector" ).textinput( "enable" );

option( optionName )Returns: Object

Gets the value currently associated with the specified optionName.
  • optionName
    Type: String
    The name of the option to get.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

var isDisabled = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "disabled" );

option()Returns: PlainObject

Gets an object containing key/value pairs representing the current textinput options hash.
  • This signature does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

var options = $( ".selector" ).textinput( "option" );

option( optionName, value )Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Sets the value of the textinput option associated with the specified optionName.
  • optionName
    Type: String
    The name of the option to set.
  • value
    Type: Object
    A value to set for the option.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", "disabled", true );

option( options )Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Sets one or more options for the textinput.
  • options
    Type: Object
    A map of option-value pairs to set.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

$( ".selector" ).textinput( "option", { disabled: true } );

refresh()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Refresh a text input.

This method is provided by the autogrow extension, and it sets the height of the textarea element based on its contents. You should call this method when the textarea element becomes visible to make sure that its initial height matches its contents.

  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the refresh method:

$( ".selector" ).textinput( "refresh" );

Events

create( event, ui )Type: textinputcreate

Triggered when the textinput is created.

Note: The ui object is empty but included for consistency with other events.

Code examples:

Initialize the textinput with the create callback specified:

$( ".selector" ).textinput({
  create: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the textinputcreate event:

$( ".selector" ).on( "textinputcreate", function( event, ui ) {} );

Examples:

A basic example of a search input field

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>textinput demo</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/mobile/1.4.5/jquery.mobile-1.4.5.min.css">
  <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
  <script src="//code.jquery.com/mobile/1.4.5/jquery.mobile-1.4.5.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
 
<div data-role="page" id="page1">
  <div data-role="header">
    <h1>jQuery Mobile Example</h1>
  </div>
  <div role="main" class="ui-content">
    <label for="basic">Text Input:</label>
    <input type="text" name="name" id="basic" value="">
  </div>
</div>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo:

A basic example of a search input field

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>textinput demo</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/mobile/1.4.5/jquery.mobile-1.4.5.min.css">
  <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
  <script src="//code.jquery.com/mobile/1.4.5/jquery.mobile-1.4.5.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
 
<div data-role="page" id="page1">
  <div data-role="header">
    <h1>jQuery Mobile Example</h1>
  </div>
  <div role="main" class="ui-content">
    <label for="search-basic">Search Input:</label>
    <input type="search" name="search" id="search-basic" value="">
  </div>
</div>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo:

© The jQuery Foundation and other contributors
Licensed under the MIT License.
https://api.jquerymobile.com/textinput