using selected text in asp.net textbox

Question

I have a textbox that has regular text in it. I want a user to be able to select a word and create a hyperlink from that word. I will be doing this by basically using that word and replacing it with an a tag and adding url info. My question is how can I get the users selected text from c# code behind. I saw something about selectedtext but that only works for windows forms textbox. Any ideas?

thanks,

Pabuc · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-07 15:50:08Z

1

I suggest using javascript.

var startPos =input.selectionStart;
var endPos = input.selectionEnd;
var selectedText = input.value.substring(startPos, endPos);

answered Nov 7, 2012 at 15:50

Pabuc

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Comments

Arthis · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-07 15:47:24Z

1

This is not possible in pure asp.net. Yo have to add some client technology to pickup the action made in the browser.

With common html page, have a look a Jquery, or another javascript framework, and highlighted text , eg:http://mark.koli.ch/2009/09/use-javascript-and-jquery-to-get-user-selected-text.html

or have a peek at silverlight, you might find there all the tools you can use with windows form.

answered Nov 7, 2012 at 15:47

Arthis

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1 Comment

Prescott Over a year ago

Adding to Arthis answer, inside the function that selects the text you can then pass that text around. Two options I see, either an ajax call to send the selected text to the server, or you can create an asp:hiddenfield and set it's value which you can then retrieve when you postback.

Antonio Bakula · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-07 15:50:59Z

0

You can't do that from code behind, becouse your C# code runs on server and user select this text on client. You will have to use Javascript.

I reccomend jQuery FieldsSelection :

https://github.com/localhost/jquery-fieldselection

answered Nov 7, 2012 at 15:50

Antonio Bakula

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