Prevent editing a form field without disabling the field

Question

I'm currently working on a page that has a date picker for one of the fields.

One of my client’s requirements is to prevent the user from manually editing the field. Only the date picker can be used. (jQuery DatePicker)

I meant to disable the field and use a hidden field to store data (disconnected from the ton send data object on post). This sounds a little strange for something that can be done using javascript. I'm sure.

So the big question is, in javascript, is it possible to prevent manual editing of a field without stopping the datepicker plugin?

Answer 1

Instead of disabling the field, just add the readonly attribute. It will have a similar effect as turning off a field, but without having to store the value in a hidden field.

Answer 2

You can also access this property using javascript if necessary:

document.getElementById("myTextBoxID").readOnly = true;