So, you wanna limit the number of characters in a comment form... possibly to *encourage* people to trackback/pingback rather than leave mamouth comments... well, here's one way of doing it:
In each theme you want this to happen in pop this is the header:
<script type="text/JavaScript">
function textCounter(field,counter,maxlimit,linecounter) {
// text width//
var fieldWidth = parseInt(field.offsetWidth);
var charcnt = field.value.length;
var comment = 0; //fix Set the initial value of the textarea id comment
// trim the extra text
if (charcnt > maxlimit) {
field.value= field.value.substring(0, maxlimit);
}
else {
// progress bar percentage
var percentage = parseInt(100 - (( maxlimit - charcnt) * 100)/maxlimit) ;
document.getElementById(counter).style.width = "200px";
document.getElementById(counter).innerHTML="Available space used: "+percentage+"%"
// color correction on style from CCFFF -> CC0000
setcolor(document.getElementById(counter),percentage,"background-color");
}
}
function setcolor(obj,percentage,prop){
obj.style[prop] = "rgb(80%,"+(100-percentage)+"%,"+(100-percentage)+"%)";
}
function CheckLength()
{
if (document.getElementById("comment").value.length < 0 ) {
document.getElementById("submit").disabled=true;
}
else document.getElementById("submit").disabled=false;
}
</script>
Then, in your comments.php replace the regular textarea for commnts with this:
<textarea onKeyDown="textCounter(this,'progressbar1',500)"
onKeyUp="textCounter(this,'progressbar1',500), CheckLength()"
onFocus="textCounter(this,'progressbar1',500)"
name="comment" id="comment" cols="80%" rows="10">
</textarea>
<div id="progressbar1" class="progress" >
<script>textCounter(document.getElementById("commentsform"),"progressbar1",9000)</script></div>
<input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" tabindex="5" value="Submit Comment" />
<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $id; ?>" />
<?php if (function_exists('live_preview')) { live_preview(); } ?>
<?php @include('constants.php'); echo $commentsFormInclude; ?>
</div>
My implementation of this code and it seems to work very nicely yes :)