Coded - Web Development and Programming Blog

This article describes how SharpSpell is able to modify existing TextBox controls to display wavy red underlines below misspelled words.

Here’s an image to demonstrate what I mean:

(This image is borrowed from SharpSpell, but you get the point) (more…)

Many people are wondering how SharpSpell is able to provide wavy underline spell checking for regular HTML TEXTAREA elements. Other competitors replace TEXTAREAs with editable IFRAMEs to provide the same functionality, but this is an invasive method that we strongly discourage.

The trick is to try to replicate the content of the TextArea as best as possible using a DIV that is positioned directly underneath the textbox. The TextArea’s background is then set to transparent, and the DIV shows up through it.

We then send the text in the TEXTAREA to the server using AJAX calls, retrieve misspellings and suggestions, and we then recreate the DIV on the client using CSS to display the underlines.

Technorati Tags: SharpSpell, Spell Checker, JavaScript, AJAX

Howdy,

Since everyone seems to be doing it ¹, I decided to start my own blog to write about my day to day experiences with web development and programming.

¹. yes, I realize that I’m starting way too late on the blogging phenomenon timeline, but better late than never right ² ?
². what better way to start a blog than with a cliché?

Who am I?

My name is Andrei Alecu and I’m a C# developer with over 5 years of experience in .NET, owner and lead developer of Tachyon Labs, a company that started as an outsourcing studio but later developed as a .NET component developer and web development company. Tachyon Labs is also the company behind SharpSpell, a real-time spell checker control for ASP.NET and WinForms. (more…)