Text editors

Wt provides different kinds of text entry widgets: WLineEdit, WTextArea, WTextEdit and WSpinBox.

Line edit

The WLineEdit class is an inline widget that provides a single line edit.

A <WLineEdit> corresponds to an HTML <input type="text"> element.

You can restrict its input using a validator providing immediate client-side feedback. In the example below characters that aren't numbers are not accepted. If you enter a number out of the predefined range (0..130) then the widget colour is changed. See Forms > Validation for more details.

Example
source
#include <Wt/WContainerWidget.h>
#include <Wt/WIntValidator.h>
#include <Wt/WLineEdit.h>
#include <Wt/WTemplate.h>


auto result =
    std::make_unique<Wt::WTemplate>(Wt::WString::tr("lineEdit-template"));
result->addFunction("id", &Wt::WTemplate::Functions::id);

auto edit = std::make_unique<Wt::WLineEdit>();
edit->setValidator(std::make_shared<Wt::WIntValidator>(0, 130));

result->bindString("label", "Age:");
result->bindWidget("edit", std::move(edit));

Here is the corresponding XML template (with message id="lineEdit-template") using style classes from the Bootstrap theme.

source
<div class="row">
<label class="col-1 col-form-label">${label}</label>
<div class="col-2">
${edit}
</div>
</div>

The line edit below reacts on every 'key pressed' event. It also shows how you can embed the label within the control (when empty).

Example
source
#include <Wt/WContainerWidget.h>
#include <Wt/WLineEdit.h>
#include <Wt/WText.h>


auto container = std::make_unique<Wt::WContainerWidget>();

Wt::WLineEdit *edit = container->addNew<Wt::WLineEdit>();
edit->setPlaceholderText("Edit me");

Wt::WText *out = container->addNew<Wt::WText>("");
out->addStyleClass("help-block");

edit->keyPressed().connect([=] (const Wt::WKeyEvent& e) {
    out->setText("You pressed the '" + e.text() + "' key.");
});

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Text area

WTextArea is an inline widget that provides a multi-line edit.

A WTextArea corresponds to an HTML <textarea> element.

Form validators can be used to validate the user's input with immediate client-side feedback.

Example

source
#include <Wt/WContainerWidget.h>
#include <Wt/WText.h>
#include <Wt/WTextArea.h>
#include <Wt/WDateTime.h>

auto container = std::make_unique<Wt::WContainerWidget>();

Wt::WTextArea *ta =
    container->addNew<Wt::WTextArea>();
ta->setColumns(80);
ta->setRows(5);
ta->setText("Change this text... \n"
            "and click outside the text area to get a changed event.");

Wt::WText *out = container->addNew<Wt::WText>("<p></p>");
out->addStyleClass("help-block");

ta->changed().connect([=] {
    out->setText("<p>Text area changed at " +
                 Wt::WDateTime::currentDateTime().toString() + ".</p>");
});

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Text edit

WTextEdit is a full-featured editor for rich text editing. It is based on the TinyMCE editor, which must be downloaded separately from its author's website. The TinyMCE toolbar layout and plugins can be configured through Wt's interface. The default layout - as shown below - covers only a small portion of TinyMCE's capabilities.

Example
source
#include <Wt/Utils.h>
#include <Wt/WContainerWidget.h>
#include <Wt/WPushButton.h>
#include <Wt/WText.h>
#include <Wt/WTextEdit.h>

using namespace Wt;

auto container = std::make_unique<Wt::WContainerWidget>();

Wt::WTextEdit *edit = container->addNew<Wt::WTextEdit>();
edit->setHeight(300);
edit->setText("<p>"
    "<span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier; font-size: medium;\">"
    "<strong>WTextEdit</strong></span></p>"
    "<p>Hey, I'm a <strong>WTextEdit</strong> and you can make me"
        " <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>rich</em></span>"
        " by adding your <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>style</em>"
        "</span>!</p>"
    "<p>Other widgets like...</p>"
      "<ul style=\"padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px;\">"
        "<li>WLineEdit</li>"
        "<li>WTextArea</li>"
        "<li>WSpinBox</li>"
      "</ul>"
    "<p>don't have style.</p>");

Wt::WPushButton *button = container->addNew<Wt::WPushButton>("Get text");
button->setMargin(10, Wt::Side::Top | Wt::Side::Bottom);

Wt::WText *out = container->addNew<Wt::WText>();
out->setStyleClass("xhtml-output");

button->clicked().connect([=] {
    out->setText("<pre>" + Wt::Utils::htmlEncode(edit->text()) + "</pre>");
});

You could also render the XHTML text to pdf using the Render::WPdfRenderer class. See Media > Pdf output for more details.

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Spin box

A spin box is an inline widget to enter a number; WSpinBox is an input control for integer numbers, while WDoubleSpinBox is an input control for fixed point numbers. A spin box consists of a line edit, and buttons which allow to increase or decrease the value.

Example
source
#include <Wt/WContainerWidget.h>
#include <Wt/WDoubleSpinBox.h>
#include <Wt/WLabel.h>
#include <Wt/WText.h>

auto container = std::make_unique<Wt::WContainerWidget>();
container->addStyleClass("form-group");

Wt::WLabel *label = container->addNew<Wt::WLabel>("Enter a number (0 - 100):");

Wt::WDoubleSpinBox *sb = container->addNew<Wt::WDoubleSpinBox>();
sb->setRange(0,100);
sb->setValue(50);
sb->setDecimals(2);
sb->setSingleStep(0.1);

label->setBuddy(sb);

Wt::WText *out = container->addNew<Wt::WText>("");
out->addStyleClass("help-block");

sb->changed().connect([=] {
    if (sb->validate() == Wt::ValidationState::Valid) {
        out->setText(Wt::WString("Spin box value changed to {1}")
                     .arg(sb->text()));
    } else {
        out->setText(Wt::WString("Invalid spin box value!"));
    }
});

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Input masks

A user may be steered to providing correct input by providing an input mask. The input mask indicates the expected format and constrains the user to provide data only in the expected format.

In the example below we use an input mask to ask the user to enter an IP address.

Example
source
#include <Wt/WContainerWidget.h>
#include <Wt/WLineEdit.h>
#include <Wt/WTemplate.h>


auto result =
    std::make_unique<Wt::WTemplate>(Wt::WString::tr("lineEdit-template"));
result->addFunction("id", &Wt::WTemplate::Functions::id);

auto edit = std::make_unique<Wt::WLineEdit>();
edit->setTextSize(15);
edit->setInputMask("009.009.009.009;_");

result->bindString("label", "IP Address:");
result->bindWidget("edit", std::move(edit));

Prepended and appended inputs

Adding on top of the standard input controls, the Bootstrap theme includes other useful form components like prepended/appended inputs. You can add text or buttons before and/or after any text-based input using the .input-group-text class. Note that select elements are not supported.

Adding text

Wrap an .input-group-text and an input control with the .input-group class to prepend or append text to an input. To prepend and append an input at once you can also use two instances of the .input-group-text before and after the input control.

Example
@
.00
$ .00
source
#include <Wt/WLineEdit.h>
#include <Wt/WTemplate.h>

auto result =
    std::make_unique<Wt::WTemplate>(Wt::WString::tr("editSide-template"));

auto edit =
    std::make_unique<Wt::WLineEdit>("Username");
edit->setStyleClass("span2");
result->bindWidget("name", std::move(edit));

edit =
    std::make_unique<Wt::WLineEdit>();
edit->setStyleClass("span2");
result->bindWidget("amount1", std::move(edit));

edit =
    std::make_unique<Wt::WLineEdit>();
edit->setStyleClass("span2");
result->bindWidget("amount2", std::move(edit));

Here is the corresponding XML template (with message id="editSide-template") using style classes from the Bootstrap theme.

source
<div class="input-group mb-3">
<span class="input-group-text">@</span>
${name}
</div>
<div class="input-group mb-3">
${amount1}
<span class="input-group-text">.00</span>
</div>
<div class="input-group mb-3">
<span class="input-group-text">$</span>
${amount2}
<span class="input-group-text">.00</span>
</div>

Adding drop down buttons

See Push buttons.

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