Zebra ClearInput  

A tiny, high-performance jQuery plugin for enhancing web forms by allowing users to easily clear input field values

Zebra ClearInput is a lightweight, optimized jQuery plugin that enhances form usability by adding an intuitive clear button to input fields. When users click this button, it instantly erases the input content and returns focus to the field for immediate re-entry.

The clear button appears automatically when users start typing and intelligently manages its visibility: it shows immediately on focus or hover, and gracefully hides when the field is empty or loses focus.

Features

• works out of the box with sensible defaults and minimal configuration
• optimized performance with event delegation
• supports multiple independent instances with isolated namespacing
• dynamically handles inputs added after initialization via update() method
• responsive layout preservation
• graceful error handling and memory leak prevention
• destroy() method for complete cleanup
• really tiny - weighs ~2KB uncompressed and ~800 bytes gzipped
• works in all modern browsers - Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, Opera

🎂 Support the development of this project

Your support means a lot and it keeps me motivated to keep working on open source projects. If you like this project please ⭐ it by clicking on the star button at the top of the page. If you are feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee by donating through PayPal, or you can become a sponsor. Either way - Thank you! 🎉

Demo

See the demos

Requirements

Zebra ClearInput has no dependencies other than jQuery 1.7.0+

Installation

Zebra ClearInput is available as a npm package. To install it use:

# the "--save" argument adds the plugin as a dependency in packages.json
npm install zebra_clearinput --save

How to use

First, load jQuery from a CDN and provide a fallback to a local source like:

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.0.min.js"></script>
<script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="path/to/jquery-3.5.0.js"><\/script>')</script>

Load the Zebra ClearInput jQuery plugin:

<script src="path/to/zebra_clearinput.min.js"></script>

Alternatively, you can load Zebra ClerInput from JSDelivr CDN like this:

<!-- for the most recent version, not recommended in production -->
<script
  src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/zebra_clearinput@latest/dist/zebra_clearinput.min.js"></script>

<!-- for a specific version -->
<script
  src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/zebra_clearinput.min.js"></script>

<!-- replacing "min" with "src" will serve you the non-compressed version -->

Load the style sheet file from a local source

<link rel="stylesheet" href="path/to/zebra_clearinput.min.css">

...or from JSDelivr CDN

<!-- for the most recent version -->
<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/zebra_clearinput@latest/dist/zebra_clearinput.min.css">

<!-- for a specific version -->
<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/zebra_clearinput.min.css">

<!-- replacing "min" with "src" will serve you the non-compressed version -->

Now, within the DOM-ready event do

$(document).ready(function() {

    // apply to all text input elements
    new $.Zebra_ClearInput('input[type=text]');

    // apply to certain text input elements
    new $.Zebra_ClearInput('input.myClass');

    // apply to all text input elements and
    // add the default CSS class name for the buttons and a custom one
    new $.Zebra_ClearInput('input[type="text"]', {
        button_class_name: 'Zebra_ClearInput myCustomStyles'
    });

});

Configuration options

Properties

Methods

destroy()

Removes a previously created instance of the plugin. This method cleans up all event handlers, removes buttons, unwraps containers and clears data attributes.

// apply to all text input elements
var clearInput = new $.Zebra_ClearInput('input[type="text"]');

// remove plugin
clearInput.destroy();

update()

Updates the plugin to initialize clear input buttons on dynamically added inputs. This method scans the original selector for any new input elements that weren't present during initial plugin initialization and adds clear buttons to them.

// apply to all text input elements
var clearInput = new $.Zebra_ClearInput('input[type="text"]');

// add new inputs dynamically
$('body').append('<input type="text" name="dynamic">');

// update to initialize the new inputs
clearInput.update();

Sponsors

Cross browser/device testing is done with