How do I automatically insert a default value into a textarea if no value was entered in by a user? - forms

Question

I have a form with a few textareas in it and I need to figure out a way to automatically insert the word "null" as the textarea values if a user chooses not to include any data in the textarea fields. I would greatly appreciate any one who would be willing to help me out with this. Thank you!
Here's a copy of the code:
<?php
$title = "Add a New Page";
$url = "add";
$metadescription = "Create and publish a new page";
include('/templates/head.php');
echo ('<title>'.$title.'</title>
<meta name="description" content="'.$metadescription.'" />');
include('/templates/meta.php');
echo ('<div id="content">');
include('/page-creator.php');
?>
<h2>Add a New Page</h2>
<form method="post" action="#">
<input type="hidden" name="url" value="null">
<input type="hidden" name="commentform" value="yes">
<h3>Author and Page Information (Required):</h3>
<p><strong>Author Name</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="authorname" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Author URL</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="authorurl" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Page Title</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="title" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Page Date</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="pagedate" value="<?php echo date('D, M d Y, g:ia T'); ?>"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Brief Description</strong>: One or two sentences.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:50px;" name="metadescription">null</textarea></p>
<hr>
<h3>Top Section (Required):</h3>
<p><strong>TOP SECTION CONTENT</strong>: In plain text format (NO HTML) describe the details.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:100px;" name="topsectioncontent"></textarea></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>TOP SECTION IMAGE</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="topsectionimage"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>TOP SECTION CODE</strong>: Enter css, html, php or other scripting code.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:100px;" name="topsectioncode">null</textarea></p>
<hr>
<h3>Middle Section (Optional):</h3>
<p><strong>MIDDLE SECTION CONTENT</strong>: In plain text format (NO HTML) describe the details.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:100px;" name="middlesectioncontent">null</textarea></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>MIDDLE SECTION IMAGE</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="middlesectionimage" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>MIDDLE SECTION CODE</strong>: Enter css, html, php or other scripting code.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:100px;" name="middlesectioncode">null</textarea></p>
<hr>
<h3>Bottom Section (Optional):</h3>
<p><strong>BOTTOM SECTION CONTENT</strong>: In plain text format (NO HTML) describe the details.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:100px;" name="bottomsectioncontent">null</textarea></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>BOTTOM SECTION IMAGE</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="bottomsectionimage" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>BOTTOM SECTION CODE</strong>: Enter css, html, php or other scripting code.<br/><br/>
<textarea style="width:95%; height:100px;" name="bottomsectioncode">null</textarea></p>
<hr>
<h3>Credits and Footnotes (Optional):</h3>
<p><strong>Ref #1 Name:</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="ref01name" value="null"></p>
<p><strong>Ref #1 URL:</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="ref01url" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Ref #2 Name:</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="ref02name" value="null"></p>
<p><strong>Ref #2 URL:</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="ref02url" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Ref #3 Name:</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="ref03name" value="null"></p>
<p><strong>Ref #3 URL:</strong>: <input style="width:250px;" type="text" name="ref03url" value="null"></p>
<hr>
<input type="submit" value="Publish">
</form>
<?php
include('/templates/footer.php'); ?>

Answer 1

Use a shorthand if:
var myValue = myText.value ? myText.value : 'null';
This is, essentially:
var myValue = function() {
if (myText.value) {
return myText.value;
} else {
return 'null';
}
}
With that said, I don't feel you should include this logic on the client. It may be best if whatever you're sending these values handle this scenario, if you have control over it.

Answer 2

So if you are using jQuery then you would do something like this when they click on the submit button, the return true is there so that it will continue with the submit after this function is run.
$(function() {
$('#submitButton').click(function() {
$('textarea').each(function(element) {
if ($(this).text() === '') {
$(this).text('null');
}
});
return true;
});
});
​
I have a JSFiddle that you can try to see what it does.
JSFiddle

Answer 3

I assume you don't want the word 'null' appearing in the UI. I am also assuming that you are handling the returned values in some sort of server-side script.
Be that the case, I would simply test the length of the values stored in the textareas, and if the length is zero (and remember to check for entered spaces etc. using TRIMs and string cleaning routines) I would simply do (pseudo code):
if (mytextarea1.text.length == 0)mytextarea1.text='null'
if (mytextarea2.text.length == 0)mytextarea2.text='null'
etc.