The clipboard npm package is a simple interface for copying text to the clipboard. It does not rely on Flash and is typically used in web applications to enhance the user experience by providing copy-to-clipboard functionality with minimal effort.
Copy text from a trigger element
This code binds a new ClipboardJS instance to elements with the class 'btn'. When these elements are clicked, the text target they are associated with is copied to the clipboard.
new ClipboardJS('.btn');Copy text programmatically
This code allows you to define a function that returns the text to be copied when the trigger element is activated.
const clipboard = new ClipboardJS('.btn', { text: function(trigger) { return 'Text to copy'; } });Cut text from an input
This code sets up the clipboard instance to cut text from an input field when the trigger element is used.
new ClipboardJS('.btn', { action: function(trigger) { return 'cut'; } });Customize via data attributes
This HTML markup shows how to use data attributes to specify the text to be copied when the button is clicked.
<button class='btn' data-clipboard-text='Text to copy'>Copy</button>Event handling
This code adds an event listener for the 'success' event, which is fired when text is successfully copied to the clipboard. It logs information about the event and clears the selection.
clipboard.on('success', function(e) { console.info('Action:', e.action); console.info('Text:', e.text); console.info('Trigger:', e.trigger); e.clearSelection(); });copy-to-clipboard is a module that provides a simple API to copy text to the clipboard. It does not have a dependency on Flash and works in modern browsers. It is similar to clipboard but offers a more straightforward, function-based approach.
clipboardy is a Node.js module for copying and pasting text to and from the clipboard. It works in both desktop and server environments, unlike clipboard which is primarily for the browser. clipboardy provides more comprehensive clipboard interactions, including reading from the clipboard.
clipboard-polyfill is a package that provides a polyfill for the Clipboard API. It aims to mimic the modern Clipboard API in browsers that do not support it fully. It is similar to clipboard in that it enables copy operations but also attempts to provide a consistent API across different browsers.
Modern copy to clipboard. No Flash. Just 3kb gzipped.
Copying text to the clipboard shouldn't be hard. It shouldn't require dozens of steps to configure or hundreds of KBs to load. But most of all, it shouldn't depend on Flash or any bloated framework.
That's why clipboard.js exists.
You can get it on npm.
npm install clipboard --save
Or if you're not into package management, just download a ZIP file.
First, include the script located on the dist folder or load it from a third-party CDN provider.
<script src="dist/clipboard.min.js"></script>
Now, you need to instantiate it by passing a DOM selector, HTML element, or list of HTML elements.
new ClipboardJS('.btn');
Internally, we need to fetch all elements that matches with your selector and attach event listeners for each one. But guess what? If you have hundreds of matches, this operation can consume a lot of memory.
For this reason we use event delegation which replaces multiple event listeners with just a single listener. After all, #perfmatters.
We're living a declarative renaissance, that's why we decided to take advantage of HTML5 data attributes for better usability.
A pretty common use case is to copy content from another element. You can do that by adding a data-clipboard-target attribute in your trigger element.
The value you include on this attribute needs to match another's element selector.
<!-- Target -->
<input id="foo" value="https://github.com/zenorocha/clipboard.js.git" />
<!-- Trigger -->
<button class="btn" data-clipboard-target="#foo">
<img src="assets/clippy.svg" alt="Copy to clipboard" />
</button>
Additionally, you can define a data-clipboard-action attribute to specify if you want to either copy or cut content.
If you omit this attribute, copy will be used by default.
<!-- Target -->
<textarea id="bar">Mussum ipsum cacilds...</textarea>
<!-- Trigger -->
<button class="btn" data-clipboard-action="cut" data-clipboard-target="#bar">
Cut to clipboard
</button>
As you may expect, the cut action only works on <input> or <textarea> elements.
Truth is, you don't even need another element to copy its content from. You can just include a data-clipboard-text attribute in your trigger element.
<!-- Trigger -->
<button
class="btn"
data-clipboard-text="Just because you can doesn't mean you should — clipboard.js"
>
Copy to clipboard
</button>
There are cases where you'd like to show some user feedback or capture what has been selected after a copy/cut operation.
That's why we fire custom events such as success and error for you to listen and implement your custom logic.
var clipboard = new ClipboardJS('.btn');
clipboard.on('success', function (e) {
console.info('Action:', e.action);
console.info('Text:', e.text);
console.info('Trigger:', e.trigger);
e.clearSelection();
});
clipboard.on('error', function (e) {
console.error('Action:', e.action);
console.error('Trigger:', e.trigger);
});
For a live demonstration, go to this site and open your console.
Each application has different design needs, that's why clipboard.js does not include any CSS or built-in tooltip solution.
The tooltips you see on the demo site were built using GitHub's Primer. You may want to check that out if you're looking for a similar look and feel.
If you don't want to modify your HTML, there's a pretty handy imperative API for you to use. All you need to do is declare a function, do your thing, and return a value.
For instance, if you want to dynamically set a target, you'll need to return a Node.
new ClipboardJS('.btn', {
target: function (trigger) {
return trigger.nextElementSibling;
},
});
If you want to dynamically set a text, you'll return a String.
new ClipboardJS('.btn', {
text: function (trigger) {
return trigger.getAttribute('aria-label');
},
});
For use in Bootstrap Modals or with any other library that changes the focus you'll want to set the focused element as the container value.
new ClipboardJS('.btn', {
container: document.getElementById('modal'),
});
Also, if you are working with single page apps, you may want to manage the lifecycle of the DOM more precisely. Here's how you clean up the events and objects that we create.
var clipboard = new ClipboardJS('.btn');
clipboard.destroy();
This library relies on both Selection and execCommand APIs. The first one is supported by all browsers while the second one is supported in the following browsers.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42+ ✔ | 12+ ✔ | 41+ ✔ | 9+ ✔ | 29+ ✔ | 10+ ✔ |
The good news is that clipboard.js gracefully degrades if you need to support older browsers. All you have to do is show a tooltip saying Copied! when success event is called and Press Ctrl+C to copy when error event is called because the text is already selected.
You can also check if clipboard.js is supported or not by running ClipboardJS.isSupported(), that way you can hide copy/cut buttons from the UI.
A browser extension that adds a "copy to clipboard" button to every code block on GitHub, MDN, Gist, StackOverflow, StackExchange, npm, and even Medium.
Install for Chrome and Firefox.
MIT License © Zeno Rocha
FAQs
Modern copy to clipboard. No Flash. Just 2kb
We found that clipboard demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 3 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
Did you know?
Socket for GitHub automatically highlights issues in each pull request and monitors the health of all your open source dependencies. Discover the contents of your packages and block harmful activity before you install or update your dependencies.
Security News
PyPI confirms no security flaws were exploited in the Ultralytics supply chain attack and highlights improvements for safer package publishing.
Security News
Research
The Socket Research Team breaks down a malicious wrapper package that uses obfuscation to harvest credentials and exfiltrate sensitive data.
Research
Security News
Attackers used a malicious npm package typosquatting a popular ESLint plugin to steal sensitive data, execute commands, and exploit developer systems.