lock text area

[vicent]

Hi everybody.
I need to lock a text aera in a form. I have a form element (input type=text) and i don't want that users could modify it. If it is 'hidden', the used script doesn't work.
Any suggestion?

Thanks a lot.

[Anon]

Actually hidden should work just fine...
<input type="hidden" name="some_name" value="your_text_here">

[vicent]

Thanks for your answer.
It should work but the script that i use doesn't work with hidden type. I use that text area in a mysql query and if the text area is hidden the query doesn't work, i don't Know why.

[Anon]

Javascript should help:

you need this function:

function error_message()
{
document.forms[0].elements[0].focus(); // This is the field I jump to instead of the textarea.
alert('You must not change this Textarea!');
};

In your Textarea-Tag you add an onfocus:

<textarea rows="2" name="test" cols="20" onfocus="error_message()">

This should do the job.
All you need is a secon field which will be focused instead of the textarea. Otherwise, the Error message will appear again and again, because after closing the error message, the old field is focused again...

[Anon]

<input name=nothingyet disabled>

Shoud do the job just perfect.

[vicent]

Thank you very much!! :-)

[Anon]

just do this, as an example:

for a text box (i think you meant this)...
<input type=text value=$ThisIsTextValue Disabled>

this would show the text in the text box, but no one would be able to change the text

for a textarea (is this what you meant?)
i think this will work, or will be close
<textarea value=&ThisIsTextValue Disabled>

gumstic

[thepriest]

Our org uses Linux.

I cant get the Disabled thing to work in Netscape.

However, looks like Mozilla is supporting the Disabled thing on the textbox (but not the textarea box).

Any other work arounds guys?

[Anon]

There's fundamentally no difference between the hidden field and a text field, apart from how they are rendered in the browser. Even in JavaScript they are identical.

May I suggest that you rewrite the code associated with this troublesome field, as that will work fine. I use them all the time, and it's a lot more weildly than a text box with associated message boxes popping up 😉

[Anon]

disabled only works for IE 5 & 6 and Netscape 6, if that's the only browsers you care about, it's the best solution.

If you want to cover all browsers I have found 2 other options:

This one I believe is better:
<input type=text name=box value="Locked text!" onFocus="this.blur()" size=12>

and the second:
<input type=text name=box value="Locked text!" onChange="this.value='Locked text!';" size=12 readonly>

best regards,

No1UKnow