Spry User Guide - Support - Adobe

Change required status of a text area
By default, Validation Text Area widgets require user input when published on a web page. You can, however, make
the completion of text areas optional for the user.
❖ To change the required status of a text area, add the isRequired property to the constructor and set its value to
false, as follows:
var textareawidget1 = new Spry.Widget.ValidationTextarea("textareawidget1",
{isRequired:false});
Create a hint for a text area
The hint option lets you display a hint that lets your user know what kind of text they should enter (for example,
“Enter your address here”). The hint appears in the text area when the user loads the page in a browser and no
predefined value exists.
❖ To create a hint for a text area, add the hint property to the constructor and the text of your hint as the value, as
follows:
var textareawidget1 = new Spry.Widget.ValidationTextarea("textareawidget1",
{hint:"Enter your address here"});
Block extra characters
You can prevent your users from entering more than the maximum number of allowed characters in a Validation
Text Area widget. For example, if you set the useCharacterMasking option so that a widget can accept no more than
20 characters, the user cannot type more than 20 characters in the text area.
Use this option in conjunction with the maxChars option. For information, see “Specify a minimum and maximum
number of characters” on page 71.
❖ To block extra characters, add the useCharacterMasking property to the constructor and set its value to true,
as follows:
var textareawidget1 = new Spry.Widget.ValidationTextarea("textareawidget1",
maxChars:20, {useCharacterMasking:true});
Customize the Validation Text Area widget
The SpryValidationTextarea.css file provides the default styling for the Validation Text Area widget. You can,
however, customize the widget by changing the appropriate CSS rule. The CSS rules in the SpryValidationTextarea.css
file use the same class names as the related elements in the widget’s HTML code, so it’s easy for you to know
which CSS rules correspond to the widget and its error states.
The SpryValidationTextarea.css file should already be included in your website before you start customizing. For
more information, see “Prepare your files” on page 3.
Style a Validation Text Area widget (general instructions)
1 Open the SpryValidationTextarea.css file.
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