How to get the pixel offset from the current caret position in an iframe with contentEditable

Question

I would like to position a floating div element in an iframe with contentEditable, in case the user enters a certain key combination (

Answer 1

I came into this problem today. After some testing, I got this working, without using temorary element.

In IE, it's easy to work it out with offsetLeft and offsetTop property of a TextRange object. Some effort is needed for webkit though.

Here's a test, you can see the result. http://jsfiddle.net/gliheng/vbucs/12/

var getCaretPixelPos = function ($node, offsetx, offsety){
    offsetx = offsetx || 0;
    offsety = offsety || 0;

    var nodeLeft = 0,
        nodeTop = 0;
    if ($node){
        nodeLeft = $node.offsetLeft;
        nodeTop = $node.offsetTop;
    }

    var pos = {left: 0, top: 0};

    if (document.selection){
        var range = document.selection.createRange();
        pos.left = range.offsetLeft + offsetx - nodeLeft + 'px';
        pos.top = range.offsetTop + offsety - nodeTop + 'px';
    }else if (window.getSelection){
        var sel = window.getSelection();
        var range = sel.getRangeAt(0).cloneRange();
        try{
            range.setStart(range.startContainer, range.startOffset-1);
        }catch(e){}
        var rect = range.getBoundingClientRect();
        if (range.endOffset == 0 || range.toString() === ''){
            // first char of line
            if (range.startContainer == $node){
                // empty div
                if (range.endOffset == 0){
                    pos.top = '0px';
                    pos.left = '0px';
                }else{
                    // firefox need this
                    var range2 = range.cloneRange();
                    range2.setStart(range2.startContainer, 0);
                    var rect2 = range2.getBoundingClientRect();
                    pos.left = rect2.left + offsetx - nodeLeft + 'px';
                    pos.top = rect2.top + rect2.height + offsety - nodeTop + 'px';
                }
            }else{
                pos.top = range.startContainer.offsetTop+'px';
                pos.left = range.startContainer.offsetLeft+'px';
            }
        }else{
            pos.left = rect.left + rect.width + offsetx - nodeLeft + 'px';
            pos.top = rect.top + offsety - nodeTop + 'px';
        }
    }
    return pos;
};