scribly

Scribly is a javascript object made to allow for the dynamic creation of editable text elements within a webpage. It includes storing the values of the edited fields in the sessionStorage to send back to the server (yourself). Give the user control over their content and information.

Purpose

I created scribly because I found myself wanting an easy way to make inline text elements editable without utilizing contenteditable. A specific scenario in which scribly is helpful would be a users profile on a social-based website. Using scribly you can provide a button for the user to click that will allow them to easily edit their information, inline, without sending them to a new page or an editor. It's fast, simple and easy for both you and your users.

Features

Methods

edit(selector, inputType, parent) OR edit(selector, parent)

• selector
• a CSS selector used to select the element(s) you want to become editable OR
• a DOM Element Object can be passed in as well
• inputType
• the method of input for the editable element, defaults to text. currently the options (with acceptable parameter values highlighted) are:
  • text input element
  • textarea element
  • select element created by passing an array of strings for options, like: ['option1', 'option2']
• parent
• a DOM element used to limit the selector search to only children of that element. defaults to the document

save(parent, callback) OR save(callback)

• parent
• a DOM element used to save only children of that element. defaults to document
• callback
• a callback function to handle the saved data from the sessionStorage

cancel(parent)

• parent
• a DOM element used to cancel only children of that element. defaults to document

Detailed Use

####Basic Functionality Say you want every p element to become editable when a user presses a button, and then saves when the user presses a save button. You would do:

<button onclick="scribly.edit('p')">Edit</button>
<button onclick="scribly.save()">Save</button>

This code will generate input boxes with a type of text to replace the innerHTML property of every element with a p tag. When the save button is pressed, scribly will store the newly edited text in the sessionStorage using the method described above and update the innerHTML of the elements that were edited.

If you would like every p element to become editable via a select element, you would do so by passing an array of strings for the inputType parameter. The strings would then be used to create option elements to populate the select element. A string is used to provide its respective option element with a value and inner text. You could provide a button like this one:

<button onclick="scribly.edit('p', ['option1', 'option2'])">Edit</button>

This would turn every p element into a select element populated with option elements whose value and text derive from the elements current value and the array you pass in.

To provide the user with an option to opt-out of their current edits, you could provide a cancel button:

<button onclick="scribly.cancel()">Cancel</button>

This will reset all editable elements and their innerHTML providing no changes. It will also not store any of the edits.

Scribly also provides functionality for editing, cancelling and saving certain elements while leaving others unaffected by passing a DOM element to the parent parameter (note this is not a practical use, as this would not allow the user any time for editing; just an example of the parent parameter).

var div1 = document.getElementById('div1');
scribly.edit('p', 'text', div1); //to edit 
scribly.save(div1); //to save
scrible.cancel(div1); //to cancel

This would edit, save, and cancel elements that are only in div1, leaving any others open for editing.

####Edit On Click

As of release 1.1, scribly.edit() will accept a DOM Element Object to be used in place of the selector parameter. This makes it easier on developers who use libraries, such as jQuery, so they can just pass in an DOM Element that they have previously selected instead of trying to remember that specific elements ID or some other attribute.

This also makes it easier to do things like allowing your users to edit and element simply by clicking on it. You can accomplish this like so:

window.addEventListener("load", function() {
	document.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
		scribly.edit(e.target, document.getElementById("div1"));
	});
});

Doing something like this, along with providing a way to cancel and save the changes (using the provided methods), will simplify the inline editing process to almost no effort. Users can literally point and click on the part of their content they want to edit and do just that.