Insert html at caret in a contenteditable div

JavascriptJqueryContenteditable

Javascript Problem Overview


I have a div with contenteditable set and I am capturing keypress using jquery to call preventDefault() when the enter key is pressed. Similar to this question which inserts text at the cursor, I would like to directly insert html, for brevity we'll say its a br tag. Using the answer to the question above actually works in IE as it uses the range.pasteHTML method, but in other browsers the br tag would appear as plain text and not html. How could I modify the answer to insert html and not text ?

Javascript Solutions


Solution 1 - Javascript

In most browsers, you can use the insertNode() method of the Range you obtain from the selection. In IE < 9 you can use pasteHTML(), as you mentioned. Below is a function to do this in all major browsers. If content is already selected, it is replaced, so this is effectively a paste operation. Also, I added code to place the caret after the end of the inserted content.

jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/jwvha/1/

Code:

function pasteHtmlAtCaret(html) {
    var sel, range;
    if (window.getSelection) {
        // IE9 and non-IE
        sel = window.getSelection();
        if (sel.getRangeAt && sel.rangeCount) {
            range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
            range.deleteContents();

            // Range.createContextualFragment() would be useful here but is
            // only relatively recently standardized and is not supported in
            // some browsers (IE9, for one)
            var el = document.createElement("div");
            el.innerHTML = html;
            var frag = document.createDocumentFragment(), node, lastNode;
            while ( (node = el.firstChild) ) {
                lastNode = frag.appendChild(node);
            }
            range.insertNode(frag);
            
            // Preserve the selection
            if (lastNode) {
                range = range.cloneRange();
                range.setStartAfter(lastNode);
                range.collapse(true);
                sel.removeAllRanges();
                sel.addRange(range);
            }
        }
    } else if (document.selection && document.selection.type != "Control") {
        // IE < 9
        document.selection.createRange().pasteHTML(html);
    }
}

UPDATE 21 AUGUST 2013

As requested in the comments, here is an updated example with an extra parameter that specifies whether or not to select the inserted content.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/timdown/jwvha/527/

Code:

function pasteHtmlAtCaret(html, selectPastedContent) {
    var sel, range;
    if (window.getSelection) {
        // IE9 and non-IE
        sel = window.getSelection();
        if (sel.getRangeAt && sel.rangeCount) {
            range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
            range.deleteContents();

            // Range.createContextualFragment() would be useful here but is
            // only relatively recently standardized and is not supported in
            // some browsers (IE9, for one)
            var el = document.createElement("div");
            el.innerHTML = html;
            var frag = document.createDocumentFragment(), node, lastNode;
            while ( (node = el.firstChild) ) {
                lastNode = frag.appendChild(node);
            }
            var firstNode = frag.firstChild;
            range.insertNode(frag);
            
            // Preserve the selection
            if (lastNode) {
                range = range.cloneRange();
                range.setStartAfter(lastNode);
                if (selectPastedContent) {
                    range.setStartBefore(firstNode);
                } else {
                    range.collapse(true);
                }
                sel.removeAllRanges();
                sel.addRange(range);
            }
        }
    } else if ( (sel = document.selection) && sel.type != "Control") {
        // IE < 9
        var originalRange = sel.createRange();
        originalRange.collapse(true);
        sel.createRange().pasteHTML(html);
        if (selectPastedContent) {
            range = sel.createRange();
            range.setEndPoint("StartToStart", originalRange);
            range.select();
        }
    }
}

Solution 2 - Javascript

var doc = document.getElementById("your_iframe").contentWindow.document;

// IE <= 10
if (document.selection){
    var range = doc.selection.createRange();
        range.pasteHTML("<b>Some bold text</b>");

// IE 11 && Firefox, Opera .....
}else if(document.getSelection){
    var range = doc.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
    var nnode = doc.createElement("b");
    range.surroundContents(nnode);
    nnode.innerHTML = "Some bold text";
};

Solution 3 - Javascript

by reading quickly and hoping not to be off topic, here is a track for those who, like me, need to insert code at the cursor level of a div:

document.getElementById('editeur').contentWindow.document.execCommand('insertHTML', false, '<br />');

'editeur' is iframe :

<iframe id="editeur" src="contenu_editeur_wysiwyg.php">
</iframe>

contenu_editeur_wysiwyg.php :

<html>
<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

don't forget :

document.getElementById('editeur').contentDocument.designMode = "on";

Solution 4 - Javascript

var r = getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
r.insertNode(r.createContextualFragment('<b>Hello</b>'));

//select this range
getSelection().removeAllRanges();
getSelection().addRange(r);
//collapse to end/start 
getSelection().collapseToEnd() 

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionNiallView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - JavascriptTim DownView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Javascriptuser3126867View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - JavascriptdelaioView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - JavascriptAlex GView Answer on Stackoverflow