Using Javascript to add to the existing text in a textarea

Question

I need to have an "Add Features" button that will append the following text to the already existing text in a textarea:

<b>Features:</b>
<ul>
<li>Feature 1 here</li>
<li>Feature 2 here</li>
</ul>

It needs to appear in html form, so that the user can see the tags as well as their contents. Here is the HTML I'm using:

<tr class="addItemFormDark">
    <td class="descriptionLabel">
        <p>Description:</p>
    </td>
    <td>
        <textarea name="description" id="addItemDescription" cols="77" rows="6"></textarea>
    </td>
</tr>
<tr class="addItemFormDark">
    <td colspan="2">
        <input type="button" onclick="addFeatures('addItemDescription')" value="Add Features"/>
    </td>
</tr>

...and here is the JavaScript I'm using:

function addFeatures(id) {
    var contents = document.getElementById(id).innerHTML;
    contents += "<b>Features:</b>\r<ul>\r\t<li>Feature 1 here</li>\r\t<li>Feature 2 here</li>\r</ul>";
    document.getElementById(id).innerHTML = contents;
}

Now here is that part I'm having trouble with. If the textarea is empty, as it is to begin with, the desired text will be added to the textarea fine, and this can be repeated multiple times with each block of text being successfully added after the last.

However, if the user types anything in the box, whether into the empty text area, or after the successful addition of one of the desired blocks of code, this completely disables the button. It will then no longer add anything to the textarea until the page is refreshed.

I got exactly the same result if I used JQuery's .append method and gave the textarea and button an id.

Can anyone help?

Use .value instead of .innerHTML to get/set the value of a textarea. — devnull69
– devnull69, Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 13:03

Tim Down · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-01 13:03:20Z

5

innerHTML is not the correct property to use for setting a textarea's value. Use value instead.

function addFeatures(id) {
    var textarea = document.getElementById(id);
    textarea.value += "<b>Features:</b>\r<ul>\r\t<li>Feature 1 here</li>\r\t<li>Feature 2 here</li>\r</ul>";
}

answered Oct 1, 2012 at 13:03

Tim Down

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Comments

Nw167 · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-01 13:11:15Z

2

With jquery I would use this:

var appendData = //the HTML text you want to add
var currentData = $("#textboxID").val();
var newData = currentData+appendData;

$("#textboxIS").val(newData);

answered Oct 1, 2012 at 13:11

Nw167

1695 bronze badges

1 Comment

Marc Over a year ago

This is a nice solution, and I have now implemented this instead. Thanks :)

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