What is the best way to copy text to the iPhone's clipboard in your application?
Their docs are sketchy and have way more features than what I want… I just want to set a string as the users clipboard.
clipboardcopyiosobjective c
What is the best way to copy text to the iPhone's clipboard in your application?
Their docs are sketchy and have way more features than what I want… I just want to set a string as the users clipboard.
shutil
has many methods you can use. One of which is:
from shutil import copyfile
copyfile(src, dst)
# 2nd option
copy(src, dst) # dst can be a folder; use copy2() to preserve timestamp
src
to a file named dst
. Both src
and dst
need to be the entire filename of the files, including path.IOError
exception will be raised.dst
already exists, it will be replaced.copy
, src
and dst
are path names given as str
s.Another shutil
method to look at is shutil.copy2()
. It's similar but preserves more metadata (e.g. time stamps).
If you use os.path
operations, use copy
rather than copyfile
. copyfile
will only accept strings.
There are three primary browser APIs for copying to the clipboard:
Async Clipboard API [navigator.clipboard.writeText]
document.execCommand('copy')
(deprecated) 👎
Overriding the copy event
Don't expect clipboard related commands to work whilst you are testing code in the console. Generally, the page is required to be active (Async Clipboard API) or requires user interaction (e.g. a user click) to allow (document.execCommand('copy')
) to access the clipboard see below for more detail.
Note that since this post was originally written deprecation of permissions in cross-origin IFRAMEs and other IFRAME "sandboxing" prevents the embedded demos "Run code snippet" buttons and "codepen.io example" from working in some browsers (including Chrome and Microsoft Edge).
To develop create your own web page, serve that page over an HTTPS connection to test and develop against.
Here is a test/demo page which demonstrates the code working: https://deanmarktaylor.github.io/clipboard-test/
Due to the level of browser support for the new Async Clipboard API, you will likely want to fall back to the document.execCommand('copy')
method to get good browser coverage.
Here is a simple example (may not work embedded in this site, read "important" note above):
function fallbackCopyTextToClipboard(text) {
var textArea = document.createElement("textarea");
textArea.value = text;
// Avoid scrolling to bottom
textArea.style.top = "0";
textArea.style.left = "0";
textArea.style.position = "fixed";
document.body.appendChild(textArea);
textArea.focus();
textArea.select();
try {
var successful = document.execCommand('copy');
var msg = successful ? 'successful' : 'unsuccessful';
console.log('Fallback: Copying text command was ' + msg);
} catch (err) {
console.error('Fallback: Oops, unable to copy', err);
}
document.body.removeChild(textArea);
}
function copyTextToClipboard(text) {
if (!navigator.clipboard) {
fallbackCopyTextToClipboard(text);
return;
}
navigator.clipboard.writeText(text).then(function() {
console.log('Async: Copying to clipboard was successful!');
}, function(err) {
console.error('Async: Could not copy text: ', err);
});
}
var copyBobBtn = document.querySelector('.js-copy-bob-btn'),
copyJaneBtn = document.querySelector('.js-copy-jane-btn');
copyBobBtn.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
copyTextToClipboard('Bob');
});
copyJaneBtn.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
copyTextToClipboard('Jane');
});
<div style="display:inline-block; vertical-align:top;">
<button class="js-copy-bob-btn">Set clipboard to BOB</button><br /><br />
<button class="js-copy-jane-btn">Set clipboard to JANE</button>
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block;">
<textarea class="js-test-textarea" cols="35" rows="4">Try pasting into here to see what you have on your clipboard:
</textarea>
</div>
(codepen.io example may not work, read "important" note above) Note that this snippet is not working well in Stack Overflow's embedded preview you can try it here: https://codepen.io/DeanMarkTaylor/pen/RMRaJX?editors=1011
Note that there is an ability to "request permission" and test for access to the clipboard via the permissions API in Chrome 66.
var text = "Example text to appear on clipboard";
navigator.clipboard.writeText(text).then(function() {
console.log('Async: Copying to clipboard was successful!');
}, function(err) {
console.error('Async: Could not copy text: ', err);
});
The rest of this post goes into the nuances and detail of the document.execCommand('copy')
API.
The JavaScript (deprecated) 👎document.execCommand('copy')
support has grown, see the links below for browser updates:
(may not work embedded in this site, read "important" note above)
var copyTextareaBtn = document.querySelector('.js-textareacopybtn');
copyTextareaBtn.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
var copyTextarea = document.querySelector('.js-copytextarea');
copyTextarea.focus();
copyTextarea.select();
try {
var successful = document.execCommand('copy');
var msg = successful ? 'successful' : 'unsuccessful';
console.log('Copying text command was ' + msg);
} catch (err) {
console.log('Oops, unable to copy');
}
});
<p>
<button class="js-textareacopybtn" style="vertical-align:top;">Copy Textarea</button>
<textarea class="js-copytextarea">Hello I'm some text</textarea>
</p>
The above simple example works great if there is a textarea
or input
element visible on the screen.
In some cases, you might wish to copy text to the clipboard without displaying an input
/ textarea
element. This is one example of a way to work around this (basically insert an element, copy to clipboard, remove element):
Tested with Google Chrome 44, Firefox 42.0a1, and Internet Explorer 11.0.8600.17814.
(may not work embedded in this site, read "important" note above)
function copyTextToClipboard(text) {
var textArea = document.createElement("textarea");
//
// *** This styling is an extra step which is likely not required. ***
//
// Why is it here? To ensure:
// 1. the element is able to have focus and selection.
// 2. if the element was to flash render it has minimal visual impact.
// 3. less flakyness with selection and copying which **might** occur if
// the textarea element is not visible.
//
// The likelihood is the element won't even render, not even a
// flash, so some of these are just precautions. However in
// Internet Explorer the element is visible whilst the popup
// box asking the user for permission for the web page to
// copy to the clipboard.
//
// Place in the top-left corner of screen regardless of scroll position.
textArea.style.position = 'fixed';
textArea.style.top = 0;
textArea.style.left = 0;
// Ensure it has a small width and height. Setting to 1px / 1em
// doesn't work as this gives a negative w/h on some browsers.
textArea.style.width = '2em';
textArea.style.height = '2em';
// We don't need padding, reducing the size if it does flash render.
textArea.style.padding = 0;
// Clean up any borders.
textArea.style.border = 'none';
textArea.style.outline = 'none';
textArea.style.boxShadow = 'none';
// Avoid flash of the white box if rendered for any reason.
textArea.style.background = 'transparent';
textArea.value = text;
document.body.appendChild(textArea);
textArea.focus();
textArea.select();
try {
var successful = document.execCommand('copy');
var msg = successful ? 'successful' : 'unsuccessful';
console.log('Copying text command was ' + msg);
} catch (err) {
console.log('Oops, unable to copy');
}
document.body.removeChild(textArea);
}
var copyBobBtn = document.querySelector('.js-copy-bob-btn'),
copyJaneBtn = document.querySelector('.js-copy-jane-btn');
copyBobBtn.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
copyTextToClipboard('Bob');
});
copyJaneBtn.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
copyTextToClipboard('Jane');
});
<div style="display:inline-block; vertical-align:top;">
<button class="js-copy-bob-btn">Set clipboard to BOB</button><br /><br />
<button class="js-copy-jane-btn">Set clipboard to JANE</button>
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block;">
<textarea class="js-test-textarea" cols="35" rows="4">Try pasting into here to see what you have on your clipboard:
</textarea>
</div>
All document.execCommand('copy')
calls must take place as a direct result of a user action, e.g. click event handler. This is a measure to prevent messing with the user's clipboard when they don't expect it.
See the Google Developers post here for more info.
Note the full Clipboard API draft specification can be found here: https://w3c.github.io/clipboard-apis/
document.queryCommandSupported('copy')
should return true
if the command "is supported by the browser".document.queryCommandEnabled('copy')
return true
if the document.execCommand('copy')
will succeed if called now. Checking to ensure the command was called from a user-initiated thread and other requirements are met.However, as an example of browser compatibility issues, Google Chrome from ~April to ~October 2015 only returned true
from document.queryCommandSupported('copy')
if the command was called from a user-initiated thread.
Note compatibility detail below.
Whilst a simple call to document.execCommand('copy')
wrapped in a try
/catch
block called as a result of a user click will get you the most compatibility use the following has some provisos:
Any call to document.execCommand
, document.queryCommandSupported
or document.queryCommandEnabled
should be wrapped in a try
/catch
block.
Different browser implementations and browser versions throw differing types of exceptions when called instead of returning false
.
Different browser implementations are still in flux and the Clipboard API is still in draft, so remember to do your testing.
Best Answer
Although the accepted answer is a good walkthrough of how
UIPasteboard
works, I figured I'd post the relevant snippet right here for everyone's convenience:Obj-C
Swift 2.2
Swift 3+: