jQuery Text Counter Plugin

A jQuery plugin for counting and limiting characters/words on text input, or textarea, elements.

Installation

Include script after the jQuery library:

<script src="/path/to/textcounter.min.js"></script>

Bower

Alternatively install using bower:

bower install jquery-text-counter

Usage

Basic usage:

$('input').textcounter();

Define maximum words and allow further input:

$('input').textcounter({
	type: "word",
	max: 15,
	stopInputAtMaximum: false
});

Define minimum characters and set custom countDownText:

$('input').textcounter({
	min: 20,
	countDownText: "Characters Left: "
});

Elements

By default the plugin creates and appends the following element after the input:

<div class="text-count-wrapper">
	Total Count:
	<span class="text-count">0</span>
</div>

If an error is present it is appended within the element. The input gains the inputErrorClass and count wrapper gains the counterErrorClass as defined in the options:

<input name="sample" class="error" />
<div class="text-count-wrapper error">
	Total Count:
	<span class="text-count">0</span>
	<div class="error-text">Error message text</div>
</div>

Callbacks

maxcount(el){}

Fires when a counter reaches the maximum word/character count.

mincount(el){}

Fires when a counter reaches the minimum word/character count.

init(el){}

Fires after the counter is initialized.

Options

type                     : "character",            // "character" or "word"
min                      : 0,                      // minimum number of characters/words
max                      : 200,                    // maximum number of characters/words, -1 for unlimited, 'auto' to use maxlength attribute
countContainerElement    : "div",                  // HTML element to wrap the text count in
countContainerClass      : "text-count-wrapper",   // class applied to the countContainerElement
inputErrorClass          : "error",                // error class appended to the input element if error occurs
counterErrorClass        : "error",                // error class appended to the countContainerElement if error occurs
counterText              : "Total Count: ",        // counter text
errorTextElement         : "div",                  // error text element
minimumErrorText         : "Minimum not met",      // error message for minimum not met,
maximumErrorText         : "Maximum exceeded",     // error message for maximum range exceeded,
displayErrorText         : true,                   // display error text messages for minimum/maximum values
stopInputAtMaximum       : true,                   // stop further text input if maximum reached
countSpaces              : false,                  // count spaces as character (only for "character" type)
countDown                : false,                  // if the counter should deduct from maximum characters/words rather than counting up
countDownText            : "Remaining: ",          // count down text
countExtendedCharacters  : false,                  // count extended UTF-8 characters as 2 bytes (such as Chinese characters)

// Callback API
maxcount                 : function(el){},         // Callback: function(element) - Fires when the counter hits the maximum word/character count
mincount                 : function(el){},         // Callback: function(element) - Fires when the counter hits the minimum word/character count
init                     : function(el){}          // Callback: function(element) - Fires after the counter is initially setup

Development

• Source hosted at GitHub
• Report issues, questions, feature requests on GitHub Issues

Authors

ractoon

Contributors

• stgeneral - count length newlines fix
• moinism - callback API
• benr77 - bower support
• SammyB - countdown starting count fix