Fusion support by BeyondFusion.com

by: Chuck Joslin

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Subject: Limiting a multi-line input box to x number of characters using JavaScript. 

Note: in the example in step 2, the character limit is set to: 254. Change as needed.

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1.Place script between head tags in layout HTML

<script>

var ns6=document.getElementById&&!document.all

function restrictinput(maxlength,e,placeholder){
if (window.event&&event.srcElement.value.length>=maxlength)
return false
else if (e.target&&e.target==eval(placeholder)&&e.target.value.length>=maxlength){
var pressedkey=/[a-zA-Z0-9\.\,\/]/ //detect alphanumeric keys
if (pressedkey.test(String.fromCharCode(e.which)))
e.stopPropagation()
}
}

function countlimit(maxlength,e,placeholder){
var theform=eval(placeholder)
var lengthleft=maxlength-theform.value.length
var placeholderobj=document.all? document.all[placeholder] : document.getElementById(placeholder)
if (window.event||e.target&&e.target==eval(placeholder)){
if (lengthleft<0)
theform.value=theform.value.substring(0,maxlength)
placeholderobj.innerHTML=lengthleft
}
}


function displaylimit(theform,thelimit){
var limit_text='<b><span id="'+theform.toString()+'">'+thelimit+'</span></b> characters remaining on your input limit'
if (document.all||ns6)
document.write(limit_text)
if (document.all){
eval(theform).onkeypress=function(){ return restrictinput(thelimit,event,theform)}
eval(theform).onkeyup=function(){ countlimit(thelimit,event,theform)}
}
else if (ns6){
document.body.addEventListener('keypress', function(event) { restrictinput(thelimit,event,theform) }, true); 
document.body.addEventListener('keyup', function(event) { countlimit(thelimit,event,theform) }, true); 
}
}

</script>

2.place this script immediately after the text area on your form. Use ctrl+t to Insert HTML.

<script>
displaylimit("document.EntryForm.Description",254)
</script>

Important: text area name must match the script. In this case, "Description" is the name of the textarea input.

Set the name in the form multi-line element properties.

Example:

<textarea name="Description" cols=60 rows=4></textarea><br>