jMaxInput: jQuery Twitter-Like Textarea

Development November 8, 2009 by cody 21 Comments

jMaxInput

jMaxInput allows you to limit the input size of a textarea like it is done in Twitter. The number of characters left to type are shown while typing. The user can write as many characters as he wants (negative value is shown) but the text can only be submitted if the size of the input is below the limit (the button is active/inactive).

You can call it like this:

$("#div").maxinput();

You can as well define the following properties:

limit: The maximum number of characters allowed
position: The position of the message
showtext: Boolean for showing the text message or just the number of characters left
message: A custom message shown after the number of characters left

View demo Download jMaxInput

Tagged with: jQuery, maximum input, textarea, twitter

Discussion²¹ Join the discussion

jQuery Blog
November 11th, 2009 at 16:06

Hey.. Nice article..
I would like to share a similar tutorial: Maxlength Textarea using jQuery
forex robot
November 19th, 2009 at 17:07

great post as usual .. thanks .. you just gave me a few more ideas to play with
axe
December 18th, 2009 at 08:40

doesn’t work correctly. I can still copy/paste characters over the limit.
cody
December 18th, 2009 at 10:29

hi,
You should be able to to that. however the buttom is disabled right?
cd data recovery
December 30th, 2009 at 17:29

awesome article. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more posts!
Cesar
January 3rd, 2010 at 18:20

It doesn’t work, if I leave a key pressed I can submit the form, try it in the example, just leave a key pressed so it writes something like ‘aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa’.
cody
January 3rd, 2010 at 18:25

Hi Cesar. I can’t simulate the behaviour you are saying… Which browser and version are you using?
Jai
January 8th, 2010 at 08:10

Awesome… really useful script…
Amit
January 16th, 2010 at 18:00

Thanks;But is there any way so that the color of the counter
change with the number of character left, just like twitter…