Changing the <input> type in IE with JavaScript

Question

This code below works in all web browsers except IE:

<input type="text" name="passwordLogin" value="Password" onfocus="if(this.value=='Password'){this.value=''; this.type='password'};" onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value='Password'; this.type='text'};" size="25" />

How can I fix it for IE?

I did some changes, but it still has an error.

I want it to work like this like here:

<input type="text" name="usernameLogin" value="Email" onfocus="if(this.value=='Email'){this.value=''};" onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value='Email'};" size="25" />

if I don't enter anything it will put the value back.

So I tried this:

<td colspan="2" id="passwordLoginTd">
     <input id="passwordLoginInput1" type="text" name="passwordLogin" value="Password" onfocus="passwordFocus()" size="25" />
     <input id="passwordLoginInput2" style="display: none;" type="password" name="passwordLogin" value="" onblur="passwordBlur()" size="25" />
    </td>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    //<![CDATA[

     passwordElement1 = document.getElementById('passwordLoginInput1');
     passwordElement2 = document.getElementById('passwordLoginInput2');

     function passwordFocus() {

      passwordElement1.style.display = "none";
      passwordElement2.style.display = "inline";
      passwordElement2.focus();

     }

     function passwordBlur() {

      if(passwordElement2.value=='') {

       passwordElement2.style.display = "none";
       passwordElement1.style.display = "inline";
       passwordElement1.focus();

      }

     }

    //]]>
    </script>

as you can see the blur does not work.

Finally I got it, I needed to remove:

passwordElement1.focus();

Answer 1

you can do this. However, doing a replace on the outerhtml essentially re-declares the element, so any attribute not explicitly defined in the tag declaration will be forgotten. That is why the text value is saved to a variable first. Unlike jQuery's attr and prop, this works in all versions of IE. I used a real IE10, and I used IETester for 5.5 thru 9.

Here is a fiddle, code below:

HTML

<input id="myinput" type="password">
<input value="transform" id="transformButton" type="button">

JS

//attach a click handler to the button to make it transform 
//when clicked, via our transform() function below
document.getElementById('transformButton').addEventListener("click", transform);

//flag of whether or not it is a password field or text field
var isPassword = true;
//this function will toggle the input between being a password or a text input
function transform() {
    //copy the element itself, its html source, and value text to a variable
    var myInput = document.getElementById("myinput");
    var oldHtml = myInput.outerHTML;
    var text = myInput.value;
    if (isPassword)
    {
        //replace "password" with "text" in the html if it is a password field
        var newHtml = oldHtml.replace(/password/g, "text");
    }
    else
    {
        //replace "text" with "password" if it is a text field
        newHtml = oldHtml.replace(/text/g, "password");
    }
    //update the html
    myInput.outerHTML = newHtml;
    //restore the text value
    myInput = document.getElementById("myinput");
    myInput.value = text;
    //toggle the isPassword flag
    isPassword = !isPassword;
}

Answer 2

You cannot dynamically change a the type of an input element in Internet Explorer.

One possible workaround would be to:

• Dynamically create a new element.
• Copy the properties of the old element into the new element.
• Set the type of the new element to the new type.
• Then replace the old element with the new element.

You may want to check the following article for a JavaScript implantation of the above:

• Change Input Element Type using JavaScript

Another option would be to statically create the two elements, but having only one visible at a time. The visibility and the focus would depend on the value of the elements. In this case, you may want to use something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">   
  function checkType() {
     var thisElement = document.getElementById('field_text');
     var otherElement = document.getElementById('field_password');

     if (thisElement.value === 'Password') {            
        otherElement.style.display = 'inline';
        thisElement.style.display = 'none';
        otherElement.focus();
     }
  }
</script>

<input type="text" value="Password" id="field_text" onfocus="checkType();" />
<input type="password" value="" style="display: none;" id="field_password" />