JS: Get array of all selected nodes in contentEditable div

Question

Hi I\'ve been working with contentEditable for a while now and I think I have a pretty good handle on it. One thing that\'s evading me is how to get an array of references t

Answer 1

Here's a version that gives you the actual selected and partially selected nodes rather than clones. Alternatively you could use my Rangy library, which has a getNodes() method of its Range objects and works in IE < 9.

function nextNode(node) {
    if (node.hasChildNodes()) {
        return node.firstChild;
    } else {
        while (node && !node.nextSibling) {
            node = node.parentNode;
        }
        if (!node) {
            return null;
        }
        return node.nextSibling;
    }
}

function getRangeSelectedNodes(range) {
    var node = range.startContainer;
    var endNode = range.endContainer;

    // Special case for a range that is contained within a single node
    if (node == endNode) {
        return [node];
    }

    // Iterate nodes until we hit the end container
    var rangeNodes = [];
    while (node && node != endNode) {
        rangeNodes.push( node = nextNode(node) );
    }

    // Add partially selected nodes at the start of the range
    node = range.startContainer;
    while (node && node != range.commonAncestorContainer) {
        rangeNodes.unshift(node);
        node = node.parentNode;
    }

    return rangeNodes;
}

function getSelectedNodes() {
    if (window.getSelection) {
        var sel = window.getSelection();
        if (!sel.isCollapsed) {
            return getRangeSelectedNodes(sel.getRangeAt(0));
        }
    }
    return [];
}