How to enable user select in a readOnly html element on iPad safari?

Question

I have an HTML element in my web page on iPad and it must be read only to prevent users updating the content,using readOnly='readOnly' makes the element unselectable and text content of the element can not be copied at all.

is there any way to make the element read only and the user can select/copy the text content????

Answer 1

just i removed the readOnly attribute and added the following onkeydown and oncut events to simulate readOnly behavior

<input type="textarea" 
    onkeydown="event.preventDefault();event.stopPropagation();return false;" 
    oncut="event.preventDefault();event.stopPropagation();return false;">