Search text on a page with JavaScript

Question

I have a FAQs page and I want to include search functionality so people dont have to read the whole page to find what they were looking for.

jQuery("#search_submit").on("click", function () {
    //var search_str = jQuery("#search_text").val();console.log(search_str);
    findString('');
    return false;
});

var TRange=null;

function findString (str) {
    str = document.getElementById('search_text').value;//jQuery("#search_text").val();
    if (parseInt(navigator.appVersion)<4) return;
    var strFound;
    if (window.find) {

        // CODE FOR BROWSERS THAT SUPPORT window.find

        var original_content = window;
        strFound=original_content.find(str);
        if (!strFound) {
            strFound=original_content.find(str,0,1);
            while (original_content.find(str,0,1)) continue;
        }
    }
    else if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft")!=-1) {

        // EXPLORER-SPECIFIC CODE

        if (TRange!=null) {
            TRange.collapse(false);
            strFound=TRange.findText(str);
            if (strFound) TRange.select();
        }
        if (TRange==null || strFound==0) {
            TRange=self.document.body.createTextRange();
            strFound=TRange.findText(str);
            if (strFound) TRange.select();
        }
    }
    else if (navigator.appName=="Opera") {
        alert ("Opera browsers not supported, sorry...")
        return;
    }
    if (!strFound) alert ("String '"+str+"' not found!")
    return;
}

I am using this script but I am not sure what I am doing wrong. It only searches part of the page that is before the search text input field.

Here is everything setup on jsfiddle http://jsfiddle.net/sandyrig/h86knpsq/1/

Try searching the word "stuff" or "lol" and you ll know what I mean.

edit

Also, actually all the questions in the page will be in collapsed state when the page loads so I ll customize this script so it finds text even in the collapsed answer and uncollapse it when reached while searching through the page.

Solution

Read the description on the page you linked. They've excluded the input box from the HTML of the page by putting it in an iframe. What happens in your code is that once the .find() function reaches the input field, it switches focus and restarts the search.

Try hard-coding the text you want to search to something that's not in the input field and you'll see that it works.

Working example: http://jsfiddle.net/daqb13n0/

Also, what @CurtisAutery said, a filter function would make a lot more sense. If this is the requirement from the client, then it's your job as a professional to explain to the client how they're wrong. Alternatively, they don't know what filtering is and no one asked them.

Also, now it searches for text ANYWHERE on the page, you'll want to limit your results to text inside the available questions and answers, right?

TL;DR:

• If you want it to work like on the page you linked: Put the input in an iframe.
• If you want to deliver a good product: Convince the client that what they want is a filtering function.