Question

I use a javascript code to clean the username on sign up. When a character is not allowed, it’s replaced by a dash.

My problem is : when the users wants to add characters in the middle of the text, the cursor is automatically placed at the end of the input.

You can test it here : http://jsfiddle.net/tZv5X/

HTML :

Username : <input type="text" id="username" />​

JS :

// Clean username
function clean_username(s) 
{
    var temp = s.replace(/[àâä@]/gi,"a");
    temp = temp.replace(/[éèêë]/gi,"e");
    temp = temp.replace(/[îï]/gi,"i");
    temp = temp.replace(/[ôö]/gi,"o");
    temp = temp.replace(/[ùûü]/gi,"u");
    temp = temp.replace(/[ç]/gi,"c");
    temp = temp.replace(/[. _,;?!&+'"()]/gi,"-");
    return temp;
}

var current_value;
$("#username").keyup(function(e)
{
    if($(this).val() != current_value)
    {
        $(this).val(clean_username($(this).val()));
        current_value = $(this).val();
    }
});​

Any idea ?

Thanks

Answer 1

You may use jCaret plugin (also mentioned by @puppybeard). Check it out:

$("#username").bind({
    keydown: function() {
        var $this = $(this);
        $this.data("pos", $this.caret().start);
    },
    keyup: function() {
        var $this = $(this),
            pos = $this.data("pos"),
            value = clean_username(this.value);
        if (value !== this.value) {
            this.value = value;
            $this.caret(pos + 1, pos + 1);
        }
    }
});​

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/tZv5X/3/