Joomla textarea Form Field Type

The textarea form field type provides a text area for entry of multi-line text.

XML Field Definition

<field 
 name="mytextarea" 
 type="textarea" 
 default="default"
 label="Enter some text"
 rows="10"
 cols="5" />

Use the raw filter to ensure that html code is preserved when the form is processed.

<field 
 name="mytextarea" 
 type="textarea" 
 default="default" 
 label="Enter some html" 
 description="" 
 rows="10"
 cols="5" 
 filter="raw" />

Additional Parameters

rows: This is the height of the visible text area in lines.

cols: This is the width of the visible text area in characters.

maxlength: It limits the number of characters that may be entered in the text area.

charcounter: It displays number of characters entered and number of characters remaining. It is used along with the maxlength attribute.

Examples

1. Meta Description Field (com_content)

<field
 name="metadesc"
 type="textarea"
 label="JFIELD_META_DESCRIPTION_LABEL"
 rows="3"
 cols="30"
 maxlength="160"
 charcounter="true" />

2. Offline Message Field (Global Configuration)

<field
 name="offline_message"
 type="textarea"
 label="COM_CONFIG_FIELD_OFFLINE_MESSAGE_LABEL"
 filter="safehtml"
 cols="60"
 rows="2"
 showon="offline:1[AND]display_offline_message:1" />