text-overflow:ellipsis in Firefox 4? (and FF5)

Spudley, you could achieve the same thing by writing a small JavaScript using jQuery:

var limit = 50;
var ellipsis = "...";
if( $('#limitedWidthTextBox').val().length > limit) {
   // -4 to include the ellipsis size and also since it is an index
   var trimmedText = $('#limitedWidthTextBox').val().substring(0, limit - 4); 
   trimmedText += ellipsis;
   $('#limitedWidthTextBox').val(trimmedText);
}

I understand that there should be some way that all browsers support this natively (without JavaScript) but, that's what we have at this point.

EDIT Also, you could make it more neat by attaching a css class to all those fixed width field say fixWidth and then do something like the following:

$(document).ready(function() {
   $('.fixWidth').each(function() {
      var limit = 50;
      var ellipsis = "...";
      var text = $(this).val();
      if (text.length > limit) {
         // -4 to include the ellipsis size and also since it is an index
         var trimmedText = text.substring(0, limit - 4); 
         trimmedText += ellipsis;
         $(this).val(trimmedText);
      }
   });
});//EOF

EDIT 09/30/2011

FF7 is out, this bug is resolved and it works!

---

EDIT 08/29/2011

This issue is marked as resolved and will be available in FF 7; currently set to release on 09/27/2011.

Mark your calendars and get ready to remove all those hacks you've put in place.

OLD

I have another answer: wait.

The FF dev team is in hot pursuit to resolve this issue.

They have tentative fix set for Firefox 6.

Firefox 6!! When will that come out?!?

Easy there, imaginary, over-reactive person. Firefox is on the fast dev track. FF6 is set for release six weeks after Firefox 5. Firefox 5 is set for release June 21st, 2011.

So that puts the fix sometime in the beginning of August 2011...hopefully.

You can sign up for the mailing list following the bug from the link in the original poster's question.

Or you can click here; whichever is easiest.

I must say I'm a little disappointed that the only browser specific hack in my application is going to be to support FF4. The above javascript solution doesn't account for variable width fonts. Here is a more verbose script that accounts for this. The big problem with this solution is that if the element containing the text is hidden when the code is run then the width of the box isn't known. This was a deal breaker for me so I stopped working on/testing it... but I thought I'd post it here in case it is of use to someone. Be sure to test it well as my testing was less than exhaustive. I intended to add a browser check to only run the code for FF4 and let all the other browsers use their existing solution.

This should be available for fiddling here: http://jsfiddle.net/kn9Qg/130/

HTML:

<div id="test">hello World</div>

CSS:

#test {
    margin-top: 20px;
    width: 68px;
    overflow: hidden;
    white-space: nowrap;
    border: 1px solid green;
}

Javascript (uses jQuery)

function ellipsify($c){
    // <div $c>                 content container (passed)
    //    <div $b>              bounds
    //       <div $o>           outer
    //          <span $i>       inner
    //       </div>
    //       <span $d></span>   dots
    //    </div>
    // </div>

    var $i = $('<span>' + $c.html() + '</span>');
    var $d = $('<span>...</span>');
    var $o = $('<div></div>');
    var $b = $('<div></div>');

    $b.css( {
        'white-space' : "nowrap",
        'display' : "block",
        'overflow': "hidden"
    }).attr('title', $c.html());

    $o.css({
        'overflow' : "hidden",
        'width' : "100%",
        'float' : "left"
    });

    $c.html('').append($b.append( $o.append($i)).append($d));

    function getWidth($w){
        return parseInt( $w.css('width').replace('px', '') );
    }

    if (getWidth($o) < getWidth($i))
    {
        while (getWidth($i) > (getWidth($b) - getWidth($d)) )
        {
             var content = $i.html();
             $i.html(content.substr(0, content.length - 1));
        }

        $o.css('width', (getWidth($b) - getWidth($d)) + 'px');
    }
    else
    {
        var content = $i.html();
        $c.empty().html(content);
    }
}

It would be called like:

$(function(){
    ellipsify($('#test'));
});