window.getSelection() offset with HTML tags?

Question

If I have the following HTML:

<div class="content">
Vivamus <span>luctus</span> urna sed urna ultricies ac tempor dui sagittis.
</div>

And I run an event on mouseup that sees the ranges of the selected text:

$(".content").on("mouseup", function () {
    var start = window.getSelection().baseOffset;
    var end = window.getSelection().focusOffset;
    if (start < end) {
        var start = window.getSelection().baseOffset;
        var end = window.getSelection().focusOffset;
    } else {
        var start = window.getSelection().focusOffset;
        var end = window.getSelection().baseOffset;
    }
    console.log(window.getSelection());
    console.log(start + ", " + end);
});

And I select the word Vivamus from the content, it will log 1, 8, as that is the range of the selection.

If, however, I select the word urna, it will log 15, 20, but won't take into account the <span> elements of the HTML.

Is there anyway for focusOffset and baseOffset to also count for HTML tags, instead of just the text?

Answer 1

Update

Live Example: http://jsfiddle.net/FLwxj/61/

Using a clearSelection() function and a replace approach, I was able to achieve the desired result.

var txt = $('#Text').html();
$('#Text').html(
    txt.replace(/<\/span>(?:\s)*<span class="highlight">/g, '')
);
clearSelection();

Sources:

• clearSelection(): https://stackoverflow.com/a/6562764/1085891
• Replace approach: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7168142/1085891

---

Below you'll find some working solutions to your problem. I placed them in order of code efficiency.

Working Solutions

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/8697302/1085891 (live example)

  window.highlight = function() {
      var selection = window.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
      var selectedText = selection.extractContents();
      var span = document.createElement("span");
      span.style.backgroundColor = "yellow";
      span.appendChild(selectedText);
      span.onclick = function (ev) {
      this.parentNode.insertBefore(
          document.createTextNode(this.innerHTML), 
          this
      );
      this.parentNode.removeChild(this);
      }
      selection.insertNode(span);
  }
  

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/1623974/1085891 (live example)

  $(".content").on("mouseup", function () {
     makeEditableAndHighlight('yellow'); 
  });
  
  function makeEditableAndHighlight(colour) {
      sel = window.getSelection();
      if (sel.rangeCount && sel.getRangeAt) {
      range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
      }
      document.designMode = "on";
      if (range) {
      sel.removeAllRanges();
      sel.addRange(range);
      }
      // Use HiliteColor since some browsers apply BackColor to the whole block
      if (!document.execCommand("HiliteColor", false, colour)) {
      document.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour);
      }
      document.designMode = "off";
  }
  
  function highlight(colour) {
      var range, sel;
      if (window.getSelection) {
      // IE9 and non-IE
      try {
          if (!document.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour)) {
          makeEditableAndHighlight(colour);
          }
      } catch (ex) {
          makeEditableAndHighlight(colour)
      }
      } else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
      // IE <= 8 case
      range = document.selection.createRange();
      range.execCommand("BackColor", false, colour);
      }
  }
  

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/12823606/1085891 (live example)

Other helpful solutions:

• http://tech.pro/tutorial/1075/javascript-highlighting-selected-text