Get selected text and selected nodes on a page?

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You are in for a bumpy ride, but this is quite possible. The main problem is that IE and W3C expose completely different interfaces to selections so if you want cross browser functionality then you basically have to write the whole thing twice. Also, some basic functionality is missing from both interfaces.

Mozilla developer connection has the story on W3C selections. Microsoft have their system documented on MSDN. I recommend starting at PPK’s introduction to ranges.

Here are some basic functions that I believe work: 

// selection objects will differ between browsers
function getSelection () {
  return ( msie ) 
    ? document.selection
    : ( window.getSelection || document.getSelection )();
}

// range objects will differ between browsers
function getRange () {
  return ( msie ) 
      ? getSelection().createRange()
      : getSelection().getRangeAt( 0 )
}

// abstract getting a parent container from a range
function parentContainer ( range ) {
  return ( msie )
      ? range.parentElement()
      : range.commonAncestorContainer;
}

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