Copying to clipboard textbox value using jQuery/JavaScript

Question

I have a textbox & button which looks like this:

     <div class="col-xs-11" style="padding:20px 0 ">
     <input type="text" class="form-control txtKeywords" id="txtKeyw" style="margin-bottom:10px; height:45px;" maxlength="80" placeholder="Click on keywords to combine your title">
   <button type="submit" class="btn btn-space btn-success btn-shade4 btn-lg copyToClipboard">
    <i class="icon icon-left s7-mouse"></i> Copy to Clipboard
     /button>

And when the user clicks the button copy to clipboard, I'd like to copy the contents of the textbox into the clipboard like this:

$(document).on("click", ".copyToClipboard", function () {
    copyToClipboard("txtKeyw");
    successMessage();
});

Where the definition of the copyToClipboard function is:

 function copyToClipboard(element) {
            var $temp = $("<input>");
            $("body").append($temp);
            $temp.val($(element).text()).select();
            document.execCommand("copy");
            $temp.remove();
        }

But when I do this, nothing happens -- no values are copied to clipboard from the textbox... What am I doing wrong here?

MORE INFORMATION:

This happens in both Chrome 59 64-bit and Firefox 54 32-bit.
successMessage() is called and displayed in the browser.
Adding # in front of the element's ID does not resolve the issue.

Does `successMessage()` get called? Does `copyToClipboard()` run? — freginold, Jul 03 '17 at 15:13
@freginold yes i can verify success message gets called and it's displayed in browser ... — User987, Jul 03 '17 at 15:13
@zuluk Version 59.0.3071.115 (Official Build) (64-bit), Firefox: 54.0.1 (32-bit) — User987, Jul 03 '17 at 15:14
Looks like you need to put a `#` before the `"txtKeyw"` when you pass it into your function. — freginold, Jul 03 '17 at 15:25

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 20 '20 at 01:04

13

STEP 1: Change your copyToClipboard(element) like this:

function copyToClipboard(text) {

   var textArea = document.createElement( "textarea" );
   textArea.value = text;
   document.body.appendChild( textArea );       
   textArea.select();

   try {
      var successful = document.execCommand( 'copy' );
      var msg = successful ? 'successful' : 'unsuccessful';
      console.log('Copying text command was ' + msg);
   } catch (err) {
      console.log('Oops, unable to copy',err);
   }    
   document.body.removeChild( textArea );
}

STEP 2: Give an id to your button and then add an event listener to it like this:

$( '#btnCopyToClipboard' ).click( function()
 {
     var clipboardText = "";
     clipboardText = $( '#txtKeyw' ).val(); 
     copyToClipboard( clipboardText );
     alert( "Copied to Clipboard" );
 });

edited Apr 20 '20 at 01:04

Deshan

2,112
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answered Jul 03 '17 at 16:03

Virk Bilal

640
1
5
10

It displays in log that copy was successsful ... but... when i try to paste text nothing is there ;/ – User987 Jul 03 '17 at 16:30
1

Instead of: $( #txtKeyw ).text() was required $( #txtKeyw ).val() – User987 Jul 03 '17 at 16:35
Quotes are needed around `#txtKeyw`, no? – freginold Jul 03 '17 at 16:48
I have edited the answer based on comments. Sorry, I didn't try it myself but hopefully my answer gave an idea on how this should be – Virk Bilal Jul 04 '17 at 09:52
Works fine. Just a minor typo error in the code: the first function name has to be renamed from copyToClipboard to copyTextToClipboard. Thanks! – Adrian Hernandez-Lopez Apr 26 '18 at 15:26
@User987 I know this is old, but did you ever get this working? The approved answer doesn't work for me. Nearly exactly the same scenario. – Mattaton Jul 09 '21 at 19:36

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '17 at 00:24

Try this..this is the correct way.

Step 1:

function copyToClipboard(text) {

   var textArea = document.createElement( "textarea" );
   textArea.value = text;
   document.body.appendChild( textArea );

   textArea.select();

   try {
      var successful = document.execCommand( 'copy' );
      var msg = successful ? 'successful' : 'unsuccessful';
      console.log('Copying text command was ' + msg);
   } catch (err) {
      console.log('Oops, unable to copy');
   }

   document.body.removeChild( textArea );
}

Step 2:

$( '#btnCopyToClipboard' ).click( function()
 {
     var clipboardText = "";

     clipboardText = $( '#txtKeyw' ).val();

     copyToClipboard( clipboardText );
     alert( "Copied to Clipboard" );
 });

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 03 '17 at 15:30

1

copyToClipboard() get a element as parameter. txtKeyw is id and you must put # before it.

answered Jul 03 '17 at 15:30

mshomali

664
1
8
27

Viet Le · Answer 4 · 2023-05-10T03:30:43.377

0

I believe that document.execCommand('copy') is deprecated now, tested on Edge v 113.0 and Opera v 98.0

Use this instead:

function copyToClipboard() {
  var txtField = document.getElementById('txt-field');
   txtField.select();
   navigator.clipboard.writeText(txtField.value);
  alert('Copied to clipboard!');
}

edited May 10 '23 at 03:30

answered May 10 '23 at 03:15

Viet Le

1
2

Copying to clipboard textbox value using jQuery/JavaScript

4 Answers4

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