javascript - iOS5 show numeric keypad by default without using type="number" or type="tel"

Question

With the release of iOS5, Apple has added their own validation to input type="number" form fields. This is causing some issues; see this question below which sums it up:

Input type='number' new validation removes leading zeros and formats number in Safari for iPhone iOS5 and latest Safari for Mac

Although input type="tel" works to bring up a numeric keypad on the iphone, it's the telephone keypad which has no decimal points.

Is there a way to set the numeric keypad as default using html/js? This not an iphone app. At minimum I need numbers and a decimal point in the keypad.

Update

Number input fields in Safari 5.1/iOS 5 only accept digits and decimal points. The default value for one of my inputs is $500,000. This is resulting in Safari showing a blank input field because $ , % are invalid characters.

Furthermore, when I run my own validation onblur, Safari clears the input field because I'm adding a $ to the value.

Thus Safari 5.1/iOS5's implementation of input type="number" has rendered it unusable.

jsfiddle

Try it here - http://jsfiddle.net/mjcookson/4ePeE/ The default value of $500,000 won't appear in Safari 5.1, but if you remove the $ and , symbols, it will. Frustrating.

Answer 1

Styling the field to contain symbols

When it comes to including the symbols within this number field, you can use some walkaround like that:

HTML:

<span id="number-container">
    <input type="number" name="number" id="number-field" value="500" />
    <span id="number-container-symbol">$</span>
</span>

CSS:

#number-container {
    position: relative;
}
#number-container-symbol {
    left: 5pt;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
}
#number-field {
    background-color: transparent;
    padding-left: 10pt;
}

Treat it as a proof of concept. See this jsfiddle for a live example. It looks like that in Chrome:

Defining smaller granularity

Based on the documentation on number input (Editor's Draft), to define granularity you need to add step="<some-floating-point-number>" attribute to the <input> tag:

<input type="number" name="number" value="500.01" step="0.01" />

and it will work in many modern browsers. See this jsfiddle for tests.

Conclusion

You should be able to style it to contain symbols you need. There is also a feature that, according to documentation, enables support for floating-point numbers.

Alternative solution - empty field in front of something else

You can also trick someone into believing he is seeing content of the input field, but show him something else behind the field (this is some extension of my original solution). Then if someone taps the field, you can propagate proper value etc., then go back to the previous state on blur. See this code (live example on jsfiddle - blue color means you are looking at something that is not within the field):

// store original value from INPUT tag in jQuery's .data()
var input_field = jQuery('#number-field');
var display_span = jQuery('#number-container-value');
var base_val = parseFloat(input_field.val());
input_field.data('storedVal', base_val);
input_field.val('');
display_span.html(base_val);

// react to field gaining and losing focus
jQuery('#number-field').on('focus', function(event){
    var el = jQuery(this);
    var display = jQuery('#number-container-value');
    if (typeof el.data('storedVal') != 'undefined'){
        el.val(el.data('storedVal'));
    };
    display.html('');
}).on('blur', function(event){
    var el = jQuery(this);
    var display = jQuery('#number-container-value');
    var new_val = parseFloat(el.val());
    el.data('storedVal', new_val);
    display.html(new_val);
    el.val('');
});

(the full code with styling is on the mentioned jsfiddle). The code needs shortening & cleaning up, but it is a proof of concept. Try it and share your findings, please.