Question

using the below jquery placeholder plugin that creates labels and overlays the field with the label.

My issue is that I have field validation and a function that places focus on the field that returns a validation error.

By setting the focus programatically, the label/placeholder persists. If I click into the field, it works as it should.

Any obvious workarounds?

/*****************************************************************************
jQuery Placeholder 1.1.1

Copyright (c) 2010 Michael J. Ryan (http://tracker1.info/)

Dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses:
    http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
    http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sets up a watermark for inputted fields... this will create a LABEL.watermark
tag immediately following the input tag, the positioning will be set absolute,
and it will be positioned to match the input tag.

To activate on all tags with a 'data-watermark' attribute:

    $('input[placeholder],textarea[placeholder]').placeholder();


To style the tags as appropriate (you'll want to make sure the font matches):

    label.placeholder {
        cursor: text;               <--- display a cursor to match the text input

        padding: 4px 4px 4px 4px;   <--- this should match the border+padding
                                            for the input field(s)
        color: #999999;             <--- this will display as faded
    }

You'll also want to have the color set for browsers with native support
    input:placeholder, textarea:placeholder {
        color: #999999;
    }
    input::-webkit-input-placeholder, textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder {
        color: #999999;
    }

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to...
    http://www.alistapart.com/articles/makingcompactformsmoreaccessible
    http://plugins.jquery.com/project/overlabel

    This works similar to the overlabel, but creates the actual label tag
    based on a data-watermark attribute on the input tag, instead of
    relying on the markup to provide it.

*****************************************************************************/
(function($){

    var ph = "PLACEHOLDER-INPUT";
    var phl = "PLACEHOLDER-LABEL";
    var boundEvents = false;
    var default_options = {
        labelClass: 'placeholder'
    };

    //check for native support for placeholder attribute, if so stub methods and return
    var input = document.createElement("input");
    if ('placeholder' in input) {
        $.fn.placeholder = $.fn.unplaceholder = function(){}; //empty function
        delete input; //cleanup IE memory
        return;
    };
    delete input;

    $.fn.placeholder = function(options) {
        bindEvents();

        var opts = $.extend(default_options, options)

        this.each(function(){
            var rnd=Math.random().toString(32).replace(/\./,'')
                ,input=$(this)
                ,label=$('<label style="position:absolute;display:none;top:0;left:0;"></label>');

            if (!input.attr('placeholder') || input.data(ph) === ph) return; //already watermarked

            //make sure the input tag has an ID assigned, if not, assign one.
            if (!input.attr('id')) input.attr('id') = 'input_' + rnd;

            label   .attr('id',input.attr('id') + "_placeholder")
                    .data(ph, '#' + input.attr('id'))   //reference to the input tag
                    .attr('for',input.attr('id'))
                    .addClass(opts.labelClass)
                    .addClass(opts.labelClass + '-for-' + this.tagName.toLowerCase()) //ex: watermark-for-textarea
                    .addClass(phl)
                    .text(input.attr('placeholder'));

            input
                .data(phl, '#' + label.attr('id'))  //set a reference to the label
                .data(ph,ph)        //set that the field is watermarked
                .addClass(ph)       //add the watermark class
                .after(label);      //add the label field to the page

            //setup overlay
            itemIn.call(this);
            itemOut.call(this);
        });
    };

    $.fn.unplaceholder = function(){
        this.each(function(){
            var input=$(this),
                label=$(input.data(phl));

            if (input.data(ph) !== ph) return;

            label.remove();
            input.removeData(ph).removeData(phl).removeClass(ph);
        });
    };


    function bindEvents() {
        if (boundEvents) return;

        //prepare live bindings if not already done.
        $('.' + ph)
            .live('click',itemIn)
            .live('focusin',itemIn)
            .live('focusout',itemOut);
        bound = true;

        boundEvents = true;
    };

    function itemIn() {
        var input = $(this)
            ,label = $(input.data(phl));

        label.css('display', 'none');
    };

    function itemOut() {
        var that = this;

        //use timeout to let other validators/formatters directly bound to blur/focusout work first
        setTimeout(function(){
            var input = $(that);
            $(input.data(phl))
                .css('top', input.position().top + 'px')
                .css('left', input.position().left + 'px')
                .css('display', !!input.val() ? 'none' : 'block');
        }, 200);
    };

}(jQuery));

and here’s the generated code on a field:

<input name="Number" title="Enter Gift Card 1 Number" class="CO_PM_GiftCardNumField PLACEHOLDER-INPUT" id="frmGCD_1_Number" style="width: 144px;" onkeypress="return checkEnter(event,'frmGCD_1')" type="text" maxLength="19" placeholder="Enter gift card" />
<label class="placeholder placeholder-for-input PLACEHOLDER-LABEL" id="frmGCD_1_Number_placeholder" style="position: absolute; display: block; top: 18px; left: 14px;" for="frmGCD_1_Number" >

Answer 1

ok – I fixed it.

Since I was setting the focus with another script, I needed to add focus (not focusin) into the plugin:

.live('click',itemIn)
.live('focusin',itemIn)
.live('focus',itemIn)
.live('focusout',itemOut);
bound = true;