Restore cursor position after changing contenteditable

Question

There is html like this:

<div contenteditable="true" class="value research-form thumbnail">
 Some text here
 </div>

And content of div should dynamicly highlight some words while user types e.g make something like:

 <div contenteditable="true" class="value research-form thumbnail">
 Some text here <span style="background-color: yellow">highlight</div> it
 </div>
 <script>
    $(document).ready(function () {
        var input = $('#textarea').on('input', function (event) {
            var newText = input.text().replace('highlight', '<span style="background-color: yellow">highlight</div>');
            input.html($.parseHTML(newText));
        });
    });
</script>

But there is a problem: when I refresh text in div cursor moves at start of the text in input.

Is there any ways to restore cursor position after changing contenteditable value? Or maybe there is other way to get the same effect?

Answer 1

I found the solution.

Here is a complete code:

<div class="container" style="margin-top: 10px">

    <div class="thumbnail value" contenteditable="true">

    </div>

</div>

<script>
    $(document).ready(function () {
        function getCaretCharacterOffsetWithin(element) {
            var caretOffset = 0;
            var doc = element.ownerDocument || element.document;
            var win = doc.defaultView || doc.parentWindow;
            var sel;
            if (typeof win.getSelection != "undefined") {
                sel = win.getSelection();
                if (sel.rangeCount > 0) {
                    var range = win.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
                    var preCaretRange = range.cloneRange();
                    preCaretRange.selectNodeContents(element);
                    preCaretRange.setEnd(range.endContainer, range.endOffset);
                    caretOffset = preCaretRange.toString().length;
                }
            } else if ((sel = doc.selection) && sel.type != "Control") {
                var textRange = sel.createRange();
                var preCaretTextRange = doc.body.createTextRange();
                preCaretTextRange.moveToElementText(element);
                preCaretTextRange.setEndPoint("EndToEnd", textRange);
                caretOffset = preCaretTextRange.text.length;
            }
            return caretOffset;
        }

        function setCaretPosition(element, offset) {
            var range = document.createRange();
            var sel = window.getSelection();

            //select appropriate node
            var currentNode = null;
            var previousNode = null;

            for (var i = 0; i < element.childNodes.length; i++) {
                //save previous node
                previousNode = currentNode;

                //get current node
                currentNode = element.childNodes[i];
                //if we get span or something else then we should get child node
               while(currentNode.childNodes.length > 0){
                  currentNode = currentNode.childNodes[0];
               }

                //calc offset in current node
                if (previousNode != null) {
                    offset -= previousNode.length;
                }
                //check whether current node has enough length
                if (offset <= currentNode.length) {
                    break;
                }
            }
            //move caret to specified offset
            if (currentNode != null) {
                range.setStart(currentNode, offset);
                range.collapse(true);
                sel.removeAllRanges();
                sel.addRange(range);
            }
        }

        function onInput(event) {
            var position = getCaretCharacterOffsetWithin(input.get(0));
            var text = input.text();
            text = text.replace(new RegExp('\\btest\\b', 'ig'), '<span style="background-color: yellow">test</span>');
            input.html($.parseHTML(text));
            setCaretPosition(input.get(0), position);
        }

        var input = $('.value').on('input',onInput);

        //content should be updated manually to prevent aditional spaces
        input.html('simple input test example');
        //trigger event
        onInput();
    });
</script>