31

Not sure why this has been so difficult for me today, but for some reason I cannot seem to get it to copy the current URL to the clipboard. Overall, I'm looking for a way to do it without needing to create some hidden text elements.

This is what I'm trying so far:

var shareBtn = document.querySelector(".share-button");

shareBtn.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
  var cpLink = window.location.href;
  cpLink.select();

  try {
    var successful = document.execCommand('copy');
    var msg = successful ? 'successful' : 'unsuccessful';
    console.log('Copy command was ' + msg);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log('Oops, unable to copy');
  }
  event.preventDefault;
});

When I try to go about it using the .select() I get this error: t.select is not a function So I'm not 100% sure what the best way to go about this. Again, without using jQuery (or any other JS library) and not using some sort of hidden textfield.

ultraloveninja
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  • because it is not an element, you can not select text – epascarello Apr 02 '18 at 20:55
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    You can't really do it without a dummy element that supports the `select()` method which is amazing to me in a year when browsers have their own payment integration APIs but lack something as basic as a clipboard API. – ppajer Apr 02 '18 at 21:01
  • So what would be the best way to grab the current URL then and get that into the clipboard? – ultraloveninja Apr 02 '18 at 21:07

4 Answers4

79

You can create a temporary DOM element to hold the URL

Unfortunately there is no standard API for clipboard operations, so we're left with the hacky way of using a HTML input element to fit our needs. The idea is to create an input, set its value to the URL of the current document, select its contents and execute copy.

We then clean up the mess instead of setting input to hidden and polluting the DOM.

var dummy = document.createElement('input'),
    text = window.location.href;

document.body.appendChild(dummy);
dummy.value = text;
dummy.select();
document.execCommand('copy');
document.body.removeChild(dummy);
ppajer
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    Ahhh, gotcha. It kinda silly that the only option is to create an empty object and then remove it. But if that's the only way...so be it. – ultraloveninja Apr 02 '18 at 21:21
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    Yeah, it's a pain. I've been looking around the Selection API to maybe find a way to simulate the whole thing without the input, but so far no luck. – ppajer Apr 02 '18 at 21:24
  • wow so you can only use the `execComand` ONLY on text inputs? Wow. – Kyle Calica-St Jan 19 '19 at 19:44
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    Just want to mention that this approach at least with Chrome does not work (or at least in my case where I use modal). As a workaround it is possible to pre-create a hidden field, then unhide + change value + copy + hide again: details -> https://stackoverflow.com/a/57192718/4992248 – TitanFighter Oct 14 '19 at 14:49
  • This should be the accepted answer ... it may be a hack, but it works perfectly fine – Diego Dorado Mar 26 '20 at 15:26
25

2021 update: you can use the Clipboard API like so:

navigator.clipboard.writeText(window.location.href);
Aaron Pradhan
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4

ppajer's answer is indeed all that's needed when the browser handles the copying, without any custom handling of clipboard events being involved.

But if you or some library hook into the copy event (say, window.addEventListener('copy', ...) and then if that handler relies on using window.getSelection(), then a 19 year old Firefox issue will bite you. Like MDN says:

It is worth noting that currently getSelection() doesn't work on the content of <textarea> and <input> elements in Firefox, Edge (Legacy) and Internet Explorer.

So, getSelection() returns a non-null result after HTMLInputElement#select, but without providing the actual selected content. Easily fixed by using a non-input element to temporarily hold the URL:

function copyUrl() {
  if (!window.getSelection) {
    alert('Please copy the URL from the location bar.');
    return;
  }
  const dummy = document.createElement('p');
  dummy.textContent = window.location.href;
  document.body.appendChild(dummy);

  const range = document.createRange();
  range.setStartBefore(dummy);
  range.setEndAfter(dummy);

  const selection = window.getSelection();
  // First clear, in case the user already selected some other text
  selection.removeAllRanges();
  selection.addRange(range);

  document.execCommand('copy');
  document.body.removeChild(dummy);
}

(The above will also work when no custom handler hooks into the copy event.)

Arjan
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2

window.navigator.clipboard.writeText(textToCopy);

Sarad Vishwakama
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