[whatwg] Placeholder option for text input boxes

[Kristof Zelechovski]

I would rather test whether a brand new INPUT object of type SEARCH has an
attribute named "placeholder".  Accessing attributes as properties is
discouraged and considered becoming obsolete; it should not be expected to
work for new attributes.
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org
[mailto:whatwg-bounces at lists.whatwg.org] On Behalf Of Garrett Smith
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 8:50 PM
To: whatwg at whatwg.org
Subject: [whatwg] Placeholder option for text input boxes

Result:
Safari 3.1 (supports placeholder)
 zip.placeholder=undefined
 zip.getAttributeNode('placeholder') =Zip Code

Others (do not support placeholder)
 zip.placeholder=undefined
 zip.getAttributeNode('placeholder') =Zip Code

If a backwards-compatible degradation strategy is to be devised, it
should be as trivial as checking:-

if(!('placeholder' in input)) {
 createFallbackPlaceholder();
}

But this will fail in the current implementation in Safari 3.1.

input.getAttribute('placeholder') would not be degradable, as all
modern browsers would return the attribute value, regardless of
whether they support the actual placeholder behavior or not.

Are there any arguments against a |placeholder| property on INPUT?

Pros/cons for a |placeholder| property and attribute on TEXTAREA?

Garrett

> ~TJ
>