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how to get selected text from iframe with javascript?

<html>
 <body>
  <script type="text/javascript">

   function smth() {

    if (document.getSelection) {
    var str = document.getSelection();
    if (window.RegExp) {
      var regstr = unescape("%20%20%20%20%20");
      var regexp = new RegExp(regstr, "g");
      str = str.replace(regexp, "");
    }
    } else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
     var range = document.selection.createRange();
     var str = range.text;
    }   

    alert(str);
   }
  </script>   

    <iframe id="my"  width="300" height="225">
   .....some html ....
    </iframe>      

    <a href="#" onclick="smth();">AA</a>
 </body>    
</html>

with smth function i can get selected text from some div, but it doesnt work with iframe. any ideas how to get selected text from iframe ?

like image 771
mm. Avatar asked Sep 24 '09 13:09

mm.


3 Answers

document.getSelection

Is on the outer document. To get the selection of the document in the iframe you need to grab the inner document:

var iframe= document.getElementById('my');
var idoc= iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document; // ie compatibility

idoc.getSelection()

Note however that WebKit does not support document.getSelection() or document.selection. Try replacing it with window.getSelection() which works in both Firefox and WebKit, but returns a selection object (a collection/wrapper around Ranges), which needs stringing:

var idoc= iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document;
var iwin= iframe.contentWindow || iframe.contentDocument.defaultView;

''+iwin.getSelection()

I'm not sure what the point of this is:

if (window.RegExp) {
  var regstr = unescape("%20%20%20%20%20");
  var regexp = new RegExp(regstr, "g");
  str = str.replace(regexp, "");
}

RegExp is basic JavaScript dating back to the very earliest version; it will always be there, you don't have to sniff for it. The URL-encoding of multiple spaces is quite unnecessary. You don't even need RegExp as such, a string replace could be written as:

str= str.split('     ').join('');
like image 139
bobince Avatar answered Nov 09 '22 18:11

bobince


You need to get the selection from the document/window in the iframe.

function getIframeSelectionText(iframe) {
  var win = iframe.contentWindow;
  var doc = win.document;

  if (win.getSelection) {
    return win.getSelection().toString();
  } else if (doc.selection && doc.selection.createRange) {
    return doc.selection.createRange().text;
  }
}

var iframe = document.getElementById("my");
alert(getIframeSelectionText(iframe));
like image 43
Tim Down Avatar answered Nov 09 '22 18:11

Tim Down


You can't access data inside an iframe that is from a domain different than yours. This is due to the Same origin policy.

like image 6
Luca Matteis Avatar answered Nov 09 '22 18:11

Luca Matteis