Javascript to check if anything is entered in editor

The values are copied to the input fields (in your example: FCKeditor1) by clicking on submit, but you can copy the values before. You will need this js-function:

         function FCKCopy() {
      for (var i = 0; i < parent.frames.length; ++i ) {
          if ( parent.frames[i].FCK )
         parent.frames[i].FCK.UpdateLinkedField();
           }
       }

then execute this function before e.g.:

FCKCopy();
alert(document.getElementById('FCKeditor1').value);

The function FCKCopy() iterates through all frames in your window, but I don't know how the function UpdateLinkedField() works. The FCKEditor is bound as a iframe. The FCKEditor itself has bounded two iframes, one for toolbar and one with the actual written html-code in the body-tag of the iframe. So the function UpdateLinkedField() copys the html code from the iframe to a hidden field. The name of the hidden field is defined by you.

hahne wrote:The values are copied to the input fields (in your example: FCKeditor1) by clicking on submit, but you can copy the values before. You will need this js-function:

         function FCKCopy() {
      for (var i = 0; i < parent.frames.length; ++i ) {
          if ( parent.frames[i].FCK )
         parent.frames[i].FCK.UpdateLinkedField();
           }
       }

then execute this function before e.g.:

FCKCopy();
alert(document.getElementById('FCKeditor1').value);

Wow -- this works great.

Is there a way to return focus to the validated field? I tried:

document.getElementById('search_terms').focus();

But focus was not shifted to this text box (no JS errors/warnings either)

astembridge wrote:Is there a way to return focus to the validated field? I tried:

document.getElementById('search_terms').focus();

But focus was not shifted to this text box (no JS errors/warnings either)

Updating in case anyone else finds this useful....

To work with the FCKEditor object you'll first need to put a handle on it:

fckeditorInstance          = FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance('mytextbox');

Now you can do things like clear the data, or add data:

FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance('mytextbox').SetData('Hello world!');
FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance('mytextbox').SetData('');

or change the background color when a key is pressed:

function resetEditorColor(fckeditorInstance)
{
   fckeditorInstance.EditorDocument.body.style.cssText += 'background-color: #FFFFFF;' ;
}
function setEditorColor(fckeditorInstance)
{
   fckeditorInstance.EditorDocument.body.style.cssText += 'background-color: #FFF9C5;' ;
}

Issue the following after creating the textbox (like with window.onload) to attach an 'onkeyup' event to the fckeditorInstance. When a key is pressed it calls the resetEditorColor() function (above)

fckeditorInstance.Events.AttachEvent( 'OnSelectionChange', resetEditorColor);

Now you can check to see if a FCKeditor object is blank (with FCKCopy). If blank, error/alert out, and change the background color to make it easier for users to spot on the screen. The AttachEvent will reset the background color to white (or whatever color) as soon as they enter anything.