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New York Times-Style Text Selection Widget Using MooTools or jQuery

Aaron Newton made a great request to me last week: why not make my MooTools Documentation Bookmarklet function more like the New York Time's text selection widget. NYT's text selection widget listens for text selection and presents the user with a "search" icon they may click on to learn more about that term. I've tried to answer that challenge -- not in bookmarklet form but in website widget form.

The Sample HTML

<div id="content-area">
	.htaccess AJAX Apache / Server APIs Blog Bookmarking / Social Books Browsers CSS / Design Google Guest Blogger Hosting / Domain JavaScript jQuery
	link() Microsoft MooTools MySQL Optimization PHP Poll rand() Security Shell Theory / Ideas Usability / Accessibility XML / XHTML
	This blog is targeted toward all levels of web designers and developers. All web topics are discussed, including CSS, JavaScript (MooTools and jQuery), PHP, and more.
</div>

The above code is next to meaningless per the widget -- I simply want to illustrate the area I'd like it to work in has an ID of content-area.

The MooTools JavaScript

window.addEvent('domready',function(){
	(function($) {
		//gets the selected text
		var getSelection = function() {
			return $try(
				function() { return window.getSelection(); },
				function() { return document.getSelection(); },
				function() { 
			        var selection = document.selection && document.selection.createRange();
					if(selection.text) { return selection.text; }
					return false;
			      }
			) || false;
		};
		//vars 
		var url = 'http://davidwalsh.name/?s={term}', selectionImage;
		//event to listen
		$('content-area').addEvent('mouseup',function(e) {
			var selection = getSelection();
			if(selection && (selection = new String(selection).replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,''))) {
				//ajax here { http://davidwalsh.name/text-selection-ajax }
				if(!selectionImage) {
					selectionImage = new Element('a',{
						href: url,
						opacity:0,
						id: 'selection-image',
						title: 'Click here to learn more about this term',
						target: '_blank'
					}).inject(document.body,'top');
				}
				//handle the every-time event
				//alert(selection);
				selectionImage.set('href',url.replace('{term}',encodeURI(selection))).setStyles({
					top: e.page.y - 30,	//offsets
					left: e.page.x - 13 //offsets
				}).tween('opacity',0);
			}
		});
		
		$(document.body).addEvent('mousedown',function() {
			//hider
			if(selectionImage) { selectionImage.tween('opacity',1); }
		});
		
	})(document.id);
});

During the mouseup event within the selected container (content-area), we determine if any text has been highlighted. If so, we:

1. Insert the A element if it has not yet been injected into the body.
2. Change the A element's URL to accommodate for the new search term.
3. Position the element to at an offset position above where the mouse goes up.

During every mousedown event we hide the A element.

The jQuery JavaScript

/* attempt to find a text selection */
function getSelected() {
	if(window.getSelection) { return window.getSelection(); }
	else if(document.getSelection) { return document.getSelection(); }
	else {
		var selection = document.selection && document.selection.createRange();
		if(selection.text) { return selection.text; }
		return false;
	}
	return false;
}
/* create sniffer */
$(document).ready(function() {
	var url = 'http://davidwalsh.name/?s={term}', selectionImage;
	$('#content-area').mouseup(function(e) {
		var selection = getSelected();
		if(selection && (selection = new String(selection).replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,''))) {
			//ajax here { http://davidwalsh.name/text-selection-ajax }
			if(!selectionImage) {
				selectionImage = $('<a>').attr({
					href: url, 
					title: 'Click here to learn more about this term',
					target: '_blank',
					id: 'selection-image'
				}).hide();
				$(document.body).append(selectionImage);
			}
			selectionImage.attr('href',url.replace('{term}',encodeURI(selection))).css({
				top: e.pageY - 30,	//offsets
				left: e.pageX - 13 //offsets
			}).fadeIn();
		}
	});
	$(document.body).mousedown(function() {
		if(selectionImage) { selectionImage.fadeOut(); }
	});
});

Follows the same principal as above.

Ideas & Enhancements

• Depending on your philosophy, you may want to implement a minimum character check as well:

  if(selection && (selection = new String(selection).replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,'')) && selection.length > 4) { //5 char min
  

• You may want to also fidget with adding/modifying text selection with keyboard keys as well. I've chosen to pass on that.
• Saving the selection content via AJAX for analytical reasons may not be a bad idea either.

Have any other ideas for improvement? Would you have any use for this on your website(s)?

Discussion

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