Tag: selection

I just recently needed to get the actual HTML of what was selected in a browser. Selected as in “you drag your mouse across some text and it turns blue”. So I came up with this nifty piece of JavaScript code that works quite flawlessly across all major browsers (yes, including IE).

/**
 * gets the current selection, including HTML code
 * @return string
*/
function getSelectionHTML() {
	var userSelection;
	try {
		if (window.getSelection) {
			// W3C ranges
			userSelection = window.getSelection();
			if (userSelection.getRangeAt)
				var range = userSelection.getRangeAt(0);
			else {
				var range = document.createRange();
				range.setStart(userSelection.anchorNode, userSelection.anchorOffset);
				range.setEnd(userSelection.focusNode, userSelection.focusOffset);
			}
			var clonedSelection = range.cloneContents();
			var div = document.createElement("div");
			div.appendChild(clonedSelection);
			return div.innerHTML;
		} else if (document.selection) {
			// Internet Explorer selection
			userSelection = document.selection.createRange();
			return userSelection.htmlText;
		} else {
			return "";
		}
	} catch(e) {
		// an error occurred - supposedly nothing is selected
		return "";
	}
};