What is the best way to ensure a textarea remains expanded when the parent element is in focus?

Question

What is the best way to ensure a textarea remains expanded when the parent element is in focus?

I have successfully implemented a textarea box that expands upon click and retracts when it loses focus.

However, I am facing an issue where if the textbox is already in expanded form, I want it to stay expanded if the user clicks anywhere within the container area (the blue section in the provided snippet).

Below is the CSS code for animating the textarea:

.container {
  width: 588px;
  background: #E8F5FD;
  mix-blend-mode: normal;
  opacity: 1.00;
  border-radius: 3px;
  padding: 10px;
}

textarea {
  font-family: "Roboto";
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: normal;
  width:508px;
  height:38px;
  font-size: 13px;
  line-height: 100%;
  opacity: 1.00;
  border: 1px solid #C6E7FB;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  border-radius: 3px;
  margin-left: 5px;
  transition: all 0.0s ease;
  resize: none;
}

textarea:focus {
  width: 508px;
  height: 82px;
}

<div class = "container">
  
<textarea> </textarea>

  <button
type="button"
className="sendButton"
onClick={this.handleSubmit}>Send</button>
  
</div>

My question is, how can I ensure that the textbox remains in its expanded form when the user clicks anywhere within the container div? And still retracts as intended if clicked outside of the container?

javascript html css

Answer 1

Answer №1

Usually, block elements like div tags are not naturally focusable. However, you can change this by giving any element the attribute tabindex="-1". With this adjustment, you have the flexibility to expand the textarea using CSS when either the .container or the textarea itself is focused. The beauty of this approach is that it's efficient and does not rely on JavaScript!

.container:focus textarea,
textarea:focus {
  width: 508px;
  height: 82px;
}

.container {
  width: 588px;
  background: #E8F5FD;
  mix-blend-mode: normal;
  opacity: 1.00;
  border-radius: 3px;
  padding: 10px;
}

textarea {
  font-family: "Roboto";
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: normal;
  width: 508px;
  height: 38px;
  font-size: 13px;
  line-height: 100%;
  opacity: 1.00;
  border: 1px solid #C6E7FB;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  border-radius: 3px;
  margin-left: 5px;
  transition: all 0.0s ease;
  resize: none;
}

<div class="container" tabindex="-1">
  <textarea> </textarea>
  <button type="button" className="sendButton" onClick={this.handleSubmit}>Send</button>
</div>

Answer 2

Usually, block elements like div tags are not naturally focusable. However, you can change this by giving any element the attribute tabindex="-1". With this adjustment, you have the flexibility to expand the textarea using CSS when either the .container or the textarea itself is focused. The beauty of this approach is that it's efficient and does not rely on JavaScript!

.container:focus textarea,
textarea:focus {
  width: 508px;
  height: 82px;
}

.container {
  width: 588px;
  background: #E8F5FD;
  mix-blend-mode: normal;
  opacity: 1.00;
  border-radius: 3px;
  padding: 10px;
}

textarea {
  font-family: "Roboto";
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: normal;
  width: 508px;
  height: 38px;
  font-size: 13px;
  line-height: 100%;
  opacity: 1.00;
  border: 1px solid #C6E7FB;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  border-radius: 3px;
  margin-left: 5px;
  transition: all 0.0s ease;
  resize: none;
}

<div class="container" tabindex="-1">
  <textarea> </textarea>
  <button type="button" className="sendButton" onClick={this.handleSubmit}>Send</button>
</div>

Answer 3

Answer №2

To resolve this issue, a two-step solution involving adjustments to the HTML code and some CSS tweaking is recommended.

Firstly, include a focus pseudo-class to the div element to allow for expansion of the child textarea upon clicking the container. See the code snippet below:

.container:focus textarea {
  width: 508px;
  height: 82px;
}

An additional step involves adding a tabindex attribute to the div in the HTML, as default focusing on a div element is not possible. Include the following code snippet in your HTML:

<div class = "container" tabindex="-1">

The tabindex attribute essentially adds the element to the tabbing sequence but setting it to -1 restricts tab navigation to that particular element.

Ensure to retain the original focus pseudo-class targeting the textarea as well.

However, a drawback of this solution is that if the user clicks outside the textbox area, the browser will display focus on the surrounding light blue div, which may not be visually appealing. Alternative solutions to address this aspect are welcomed.

Answer 4

To resolve this issue, a two-step solution involving adjustments to the HTML code and some CSS tweaking is recommended.

Firstly, include a focus pseudo-class to the div element to allow for expansion of the child textarea upon clicking the container. See the code snippet below:

.container:focus textarea {
  width: 508px;
  height: 82px;
}

An additional step involves adding a tabindex attribute to the div in the HTML, as default focusing on a div element is not possible. Include the following code snippet in your HTML:

<div class = "container" tabindex="-1">

The tabindex attribute essentially adds the element to the tabbing sequence but setting it to -1 restricts tab navigation to that particular element.

Ensure to retain the original focus pseudo-class targeting the textarea as well.

However, a drawback of this solution is that if the user clicks outside the textbox area, the browser will display focus on the surrounding light blue div, which may not be visually appealing. Alternative solutions to address this aspect are welcomed.

Answer 5

Answer №3

To enable the browser to interpret user clicks and respond to them, JavaScript's assistance is required, especially its event listening mechanism.

Each user action on the page triggers an event that the browser can listen for and capture. As a developer, you can then instruct the browser on how to react when detecting an event.

In this scenario, I have instructed the browser to increase the size of the textarea when the user clicks inside it (using the focus event on our textarea). And reduce its size when the user clicks outside (utilizing the blur event on our textarea). Essentially, I have added 2 event listeners for focus and blur to the <textarea> (which now has the id="myArea").

Here is the functional code snippet:

document.getElementById("myArea").addEventListener('focus', function(){
    this.width = 508;
    this.height = 82;
});

document.getElementById("myArea").addEventListener('blur', function(){
    this.width = 508;
    this.height = 42;
});

.container {
width: 588px;
background: #E8F5FD;
mix-blend-mode: normal;
opacity: 1.00;
border-radius: 3px;
padding: 10px;
}

textarea {
font-family: "Roboto";
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
width:508px;
height:38px;
font-size: 13px;
line-height: 100%;
opacity: 1.00;
border: 1px solid #C6E7FB;
box-sizing: border-box;
border-radius: 3px;
margin-left: 5px;
transition: all 0.0s ease;
resize: none;
}

textarea:focus {
width: 508px;
height: 82px;
}

<div class = "container">
  
<textarea id="myArea"> </textarea>

  <button
type="button"
className="sendButton"
onClick={this.handleSubmit}>Send</button>
  
</div>

Answer 6

To enable the browser to interpret user clicks and respond to them, JavaScript's assistance is required, especially its event listening mechanism.

Each user action on the page triggers an event that the browser can listen for and capture. As a developer, you can then instruct the browser on how to react when detecting an event.

In this scenario, I have instructed the browser to increase the size of the textarea when the user clicks inside it (using the focus event on our textarea). And reduce its size when the user clicks outside (utilizing the blur event on our textarea). Essentially, I have added 2 event listeners for focus and blur to the <textarea> (which now has the id="myArea").

Here is the functional code snippet:

document.getElementById("myArea").addEventListener('focus', function(){
    this.width = 508;
    this.height = 82;
});

document.getElementById("myArea").addEventListener('blur', function(){
    this.width = 508;
    this.height = 42;
});

.container {
width: 588px;
background: #E8F5FD;
mix-blend-mode: normal;
opacity: 1.00;
border-radius: 3px;
padding: 10px;
}

textarea {
font-family: "Roboto";
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
width:508px;
height:38px;
font-size: 13px;
line-height: 100%;
opacity: 1.00;
border: 1px solid #C6E7FB;
box-sizing: border-box;
border-radius: 3px;
margin-left: 5px;
transition: all 0.0s ease;
resize: none;
}

textarea:focus {
width: 508px;
height: 82px;
}

<div class = "container">
  
<textarea id="myArea"> </textarea>

  <button
type="button"
className="sendButton"
onClick={this.handleSubmit}>Send</button>
  
</div>

What is the best way to ensure a textarea remains expanded when the parent element is in focus?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

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