JavaScript Copy to Clipboard with Branding

By  on  

I published a post a year ago detailing how you can copy to the clipboard using JavaScript.  The post was very popular and why would it be?  Copying content from a webpage without needing to use the default browser functions is awesome.  One trend I've seen recently is that when the use copies content from a given post, the copy function (Zero Clipboard, in this example) appends the page title, a link, and a special message telling the recipient to view the post.  Here's how to do it.

The JavaScript

Assuming the user is using ZeroClipboard functionality:

//set path
ZeroClipboard.setMoviePath('https://davidwalsh.name/demo/ZeroClipboard.swf');
//create client
var clip = new ZeroClipboard.Client();
//event
clip.addEventListener('mousedown',function() {
	clip.setText(document.getElementById('box-content').value + ".\n\nRead " + window.title + " at " + window.location + " to learn more!");
});
//glue it to the button
clip.glue('copy');

Appending the special message to the given text is done with basic JavaScript string concatenation of available window properties.

This post is more about the idea than it is the execution.  This type of marketing is good for newspaper-style websites that host thousands of posts and want to give themselves credit for the content that's been copied.

Recent Features

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

  • By
    CSS vs. JS Animation: Which is Faster?

    How is it possible that JavaScript-based animation has secretly always been as fast — or faster — than CSS transitions? And, how is it possible that Adobe and Google consistently release media-rich mobile sites that rival the performance of native apps? This article serves as a point-by-point...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools Wall Plugin

    One of the more impressive MooTools plugins to hit the Forge recently was The Wall by Marco Dell'Anna.  The Wall creates an endless grid of elements which can be grabbed and dragged, fading in elements as they are encountered.  Let me show...

  • By
    jQuery Random Link Color Animations

    We all know that we can set a link's :hover color, but what if we want to add a bit more dynamism and flair? jQuery allows you to not only animate to a specified color, but also allows you to animate to a random color. The...

Discussion

  1. addEventListener only works in non-IE browsers, you’ll want to use a cross-browser solution when implementing this on a public-facing website.

    I remember seeing a script used on some website that appends a message to any text that’s copied from the page. I can’t find it now though :(. Totally forgot how it worked, but it’d be perfect to append a message to the copied text.

  2. There’s a system available called “Tynt” (http://www.tynt.com) that does a similar thing. It also tracks all copied text and links clicked from the copied text into your account.
    Boss uses it

    Its not very lightweight though, all links generated have an ugly #hash tag and you can’t customize the message.

    Won’t be long before they’re charging for it either in my opinion, so finding a cross browser solution before they do (Tynt appears to be cross browser) would be fantastic

  3. Tim Branyen

    I don’t understand why someone would advocate to mainstream this approach. Nothing is worse than when I want to paste someone a snippet from an article only to find a massive block of unwanted text unintentionally spammed.

    This sort of practice should be rejected by the web development community the same way as unwanted audio, pop ups, and trailing mouse widgets.

  4. Leo

    Hi,
    Can anybody explain how to move the initial position of the popup Alert box?
    Currently it initially pops up in the center of the webpage.
    Thank you !

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!