Save Web Form Content Using Control + S

By  on  

We've all used word processing applications like Microsoft Word and if there's one thing they've taught you it's that you need to save every few seconds in anticipation of the inevitable crash. WordPress has mimicked this functionality within their WYSIWYG editor and I use it frequently. Here's how to listen for "CONTROL+S" using MooTools.

The HTML

<form method="post" id="edit-form">
<textarea style="width:400px;height:250px;" name="content" id="content-box"><?php echo $_POST['content']; ?></textarea><br />
<input type="submit" id="save-button" value="Save and Continue" />
</form>

A simple form -- no modifications needed for this functionality to work.

The MooTools JavaScript

(function($) {
	window.addEvent('domready',function() {
		$('content-box').addEvent('keydown',function(event) {
			if((event.control || event.meta) && event.key == 's') {
				event.stop();
				$('edit-form').submit();
			}
		});
	});
})(document.id);

On the keydown event we listen for CONTROL+S (or META+S on Macs) and if the key is "s", we trigger form submission. I've not attempted to show you the AJAX method because that type of system would be very specific to your database/server-side language.

Crazy, sexy, cool, just like TLC from the 90's!

Recent Features

  • By
    9 Mind-Blowing Canvas Demos

    The <canvas> element has been a revelation for the visual experts among our ranks.  Canvas provides the means for incredible and efficient animations with the added bonus of no Flash; these developers can flash their awesome JavaScript skills instead.  Here are nine unbelievable canvas demos that...

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn&#8217;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...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Jack Rugile&#8217;s Favorite CodePen Demos

    CodePen is an amazing source of inspiration for code and design. I am blown away every day by the demos users create. As you'll see below, I have an affinity toward things that move. It was difficult to narrow down my favorites, but here they are!

  • By
    Introducing LazyLoad 2.0

    While improvements in browsers means more cool APIs for us to play with, it also means we need to maintain existing code.  With Firefox 4's release came news that my MooTools LazyLoad plugin was not intercepting image loading -- the images were loading regardless of...

Discussion

  1. kolin

    firefox 3.5.3 brings up the save page dialog (as well as saving), but nice idea :)

  2. Confirmed on Windows Firefox. I’ll look for patch. WYSIWYG’s do this so I’m confident there’s a way to prevent it.

  3. Preventing browser’s default behavior is really bad thing to do if you care about usability.

    Anyway, it’s a nice example of enhancing user experience using MooTools—you obviously don’t have to use ⌘+S combination, but it could be anything else.

  4. This would be really awesome if you could override firefox’s default behaviour!

  5. Thank you very much for this post.
    I always wanted to know how to handle keyboard events in mootools and this is an excellent example!

  6. @kolin: Yes, i cameto mention it ;)

    Good work!
    recently i just saw in Hotmail.

  7. Alt+S Perhaps, that’s teh way I see it done usually.

  8. Why not use the brand new Keyboard functionnality from Mootools More?

  9. Alexander

    I’ve got about 50 to 100 textareas on my page and a lot of input fields. Is there a way to attach the key down event to the page and not as suggested to every single input element?

  10. hei david can you write for JQuery…?

  11. Nikolaj

    David, it looks like it’s the alert-box that causes Firefox to fail.

    Either get rid of the alert(), or simply put the alert/saving part into a function with delay(1), and it will work as expected :-)

    Updated code:

    (function($) {
    	window.addEvent('domready',function() {
    		$('content-box').focus();
    		$('content-box').addEvent('keydown',function(event) {
    			if((event.control || event.meta) && event.key == 's') {
    				event.stop();
    				(function () {
    					alert('Saving Content!');
    					//$('save-button').fireEvent('click');
    					$('edit-form').submit();
    				}).delay(1);
    			}
    		});
    	});
    })(document.id);
    

    Important: The small delay IS needed in order to make it work as expected!

  12. @Nikolaj: Great catch! I’ve updated my demo.

  13. Great Idea, David!
    Fantastic Website, i like the Tutorials & Demos.

    Great job!

    Best regards, MrKenobi

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