Auto Clear and Restore Form Elements

By Jeff Starr on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 — 2 Responses metadata

Post #195 categorized as Function, last updated on Nov 4, 2007
Tagged with elements, forms, javascript, php, tips, tricks

Using a small bit of JavaScript, it is possible to auto-clear and restore form elements when users bring focus to them. Simply copy, paste, and modify the following code example to achieve an effect similar to this:

<form action="http://domain.com/" method="post">
   <p>
      <input value="Click here and this will disappear.." onfocus="if(this.value == 'Click here and this will disappear..') {this.value = '';}" onblur="if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'Click here and this will disappear..';}" type="text" size="77" />
   </p>
</form>

Update [January 2nd, 2007] » Here is another auto-clear JavaScript trick that cleans up the (X)HTML code but does not auto-restore the element. Simply place the first code block into the document head (or external JavaScript file), and then flesh out form elements in the second of block of code and place within the document body:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--
   function m(el) {
      if ( el.defaultValue == el.value ) el.value = "";
}
//--><!]]>
</script>

<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF; ?>">
 <p>
  <input type="text" name="target" value="This will disappear upon user focus.." onFocus="m(this)">
  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
 </p>
</form>

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