window.getSelection() doesn't give html nodes

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12108713

  •  28-06-2021
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Question

This is my page source :

<body>
<div>
    <p><span id="1">word</span> <span id="2">word</span> </p>
    <div><span id="3">word</span> <span id="4">word</span></div>
    <ul>
        <li><span id="5">word</span> <span id="6">word</span></li>
    </ul>
    </ul>
    <p><span id="7">word</span> <span id="8">word</span> <strong><span id="9">word</span></strong> </p>
</div>
</body>

I want to highlight(apply a new class) user selected spans and get it id's.

I can get user selected content through window.getSelection().But i don't know how to get selected text nodes.

Thanks in advance, Logan

Was it helpful?

Solution

The window.getSelection() returns a selection object (ref) that includes the start (anchorNode) and end (extentNode). So based on the HTML you provided - with the ID's modified to not using only numbers (ref) - here is a demo. Click on any word, or select a group of words to see them get the "red" class name.

Modified HTML

<div>
    <p><span id="s1">word1</span> <span id="s2">word2</span> </p>
    <div><span id="s3">word3</span> <span id="s4">word4</span></div>
    <ul>
        <li><span id="s5">word5</span> <span id="s6">word6</span></li>
    </ul>
    <p><span id="s7">word7</span> <span id="s8">word8</span> <strong><span id="s9">word9</span></strong> </p>
</div>

Script

$('div').bind('mouseup', function(){

    var i,
        s = window.getSelection(),
        // get ID of starting node
        start = parseInt((s.anchorNode.parentNode.id || '').substring(1), 10),
        // get ID of end node
        end = parseInt((s.extentNode.parentNode.id || '').substring(1), 10),
        // start gathering spans
        spans = $('#s' + start);

    // remove selected class
    $('span[id^=s]').removeClass('red');

    // add each span
    for (i = start; i <= end; i++) {
        spans = spans.add( $('#s' + i) );
    }

    // add selected class
    spans.addClass('red');

});

​ ​

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