text probem

WebHelper Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 91

When you put a word into a text box (say on google) a box appears as you type with previous entry's that you have put into that box.

1) What is this called

2) Can I get rid of it on one of my web pages (only that page) using say PHP?

Thanks,

Dom.

Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:14 pm (19 years, 8 months ago)

What it's called will depend on the browser in use (it's simply called Saved Form Information in Firefox). You won't be able to disable it, since it's a browser thing - there's a chance you might be able to do something with javascript, but it's unlikely that it would be effective.

Also, moved to General.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

In Microsoft Internet Explorer, it's called autocomplete. There is a way to disable it, but it will only take effect in IE:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/forms/autocomplete_ovr.asp

Code:

WebHelper Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 91

Thanks again Daniel and Adam,

does it also autocomplete if you yse a text field?

and after you have

Code:

do you have to

Code:

?

Thanks,

Dom.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

<input> can be a text field, a selection box...

You don't need to set autocomplete="on", it's on by default.

WebHelper Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 91

thanks

Junior WebHelper Joined: 10 Oct 2002 Posts: 49

This thread prompted me to do some more research, so here's the results which I hope you find helpful.

I found an interesting discussion about the MS extension autocmplete at
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web/Q_21042482.html
Uptake -- it seems to be gaining in popularity.

I also discovered that indeed you can disable thru code the autocompletion feature of foxfire. I'm using FireFox 0.9.3 and have been able to do it two ways.

1. Doing it the FireFox way:

<input type="autocomplete" disableautocomplete>

See for more info:
http://www.xulplanet.com/references/elemref/ref_textboxFirefoxAutoComplete.html

and specifically:
http://www.xulplanet.com/references/elemref/ref_textboxFirefoxAutoComplete.html#attr_disableautocomplete

2. I also tried using the MSIE extension autocomplete="off" as follows and it worked with FireFox, too:
<input name=user_who type="text" autocomplete="off">

-- php4ever

Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:38 pm (19 years, 8 months ago)

That's interesting, but from what I can tell it's not part of the W3C standard (it's not in input's ATTLIST in the DTD) - so there's not guarantee that all browsers support it (which means it's best not to rely on it too much).