How to make a html control read only

How to make a html control (text box, checkbox, etc...) be read only?
Are there any HTML syntax like that?
For example, in the following text box code, value "Joe" is in text
box, but user still able to edit it. I don't want user able to edit
it.

<input type="TEXT" name="username" value="Joe">

Please advise!

jrefactors (AT) hotmail (DOT) com (Matt) wrote:

How to make a html control (text box, checkbox, etc...) be read only?

Using the attribute readonly (or if you play the XHTML game,
readonly="readonly") in an <input> element. But by the specification,
it applies to elements with type="text" and type="password" only
(though browsers might be more liberal).

For example, in the following text box code, value "Joe" is in text
box, but user still able to edit it. I don't want user able to edit
it.

input type="TEXT" name="username" value="Joe"

So why do you have the field there in the first place?

It's safer to use

<input type="hidden" name="username" value="Joe">
Username: Joe

partly because not quite all browsers support the readonly attribute,
partly because this makes it much clearer that the user is not expected
to change the username.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Pages about Web authoring: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:

jrefactors (AT) hotmail (DOT) com (Matt) wrote:
input type="TEXT" name="username" value="Joe"

So why do you have the field there in the first place?

It's safer to use

input type="hidden" name="username" value="Joe"
Username: Joe

partly because not quite all browsers support the readonly attribute,
partly because this makes it much clearer that the user is not expected
to change the username.

Huh, never thought of doing that.

Great tip, thanks.

--
Ben M.

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