Get textarea text with javascript or Jquery
I have an iframe that contains a textarea, like so:
<html>
<body>
<form id="form1">
<div>
<textarea id="area1" rows="15"></textarea>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
I want to get the textarea text in the parent page. I've tried this:
var text = $('#frame1').contents().find('#area1').val();
But an empty string is returned. However if I put a value within tags this value is returned successfully:
<textarea id="area1" rows="15">something</textarea>
How can I get the value of the textarea from the page which contains the iframe?
Answer
READING the <textarea>'s content:
var text1 = document.getElementById('myTextArea').value; // plain JavaScript
var text2 = $("#myTextArea").val(); // jQuery
WRITING to the <textarea>':
document.getElementById('myTextArea').value = 'new value'; // plain JavaScript
$("#myTextArea").val('new value'); // jQuery
Do not use .html() or .innerHTML!
jQuery's .html() and JavaScript's .innerHTML should not be used, as they do not pick up changes to the textarea's text.
When the user types on the textarea, the .html() won't return the typed value, but the original one -- check demo fiddle above for an example.