html - CSS pseudo-element input-placeholder::after to show with or without value in text box

Question

I'm trying to get some UI flagging on form elements for the user after validation to work using the placeholder pseudo elements (starting with text boxes). What I want is the ::input-placeholder::after pseudo element to be shown when there is both a value in the text box as well as when there isn't a value in the text box (e.g. when an invalid value is present or when a value is required - should show the red "X" in the far right of the textbox via the ::input-placeholder::after pseudo-element).

Here's the fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/edsinek/L8u7s25d/

Here's a snippet of the CSS I'm using to show the "X" for an invalid value:

.input-invalid input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder::after {
  content: "2716"; // "X"
  font-size: 18px;
  color: #ff0000;
  padding-right: 0;
  float: right;
}

Note: I'm only coding for Chrome at the moment, so forgive the webkit specific stuff.

Any ideas? Or is this something that is not possible and is UA dependent?

Answer 1

Original Answer: (doesn't work in Chrome v47 and above⁺)

When you start typing inside a text box, ::-webkit-input-placeholder element's visibility gets set to hidden. To display its ::after element even when the input box has a value, we need to override it and set the visibility to visible.

.input-invalid input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder::after {
  visibility: visible;
}

    var addFormFocusEventHandler = function() {
      var placeholder;
      // using the document syntax in case input & container added to DOM dynamically
      $(document).on("focus", "div.input-container :input", function() {
        $(this).closest("div.input-container").addClass("input-focused");
        placeholder = $(this).prop("placeholder");
        $(this).prop("placeholder", " ");
      }).on("blur", "div.input-container :input", function() {
        $(this).closest("div.input-container").removeClass("input-focused");
        $(this).prop("placeholder", placeholder);
        placeholder = "";
      });
    };
    var addFormValueEventHandler = function() {
      // using the document syntax in case input & container added to DOM dynamically
      $(document).on("blur", "div.input-container :input", function() {
        if ($(this).val()) {
          $(this).closest("div.input-container").addClass("input-has-value");
        } else {
          $(this).closest("div.input-container").removeClass("input-has-value");
        }
      });
    };

    var initialize = function() {
      addFormFocusEventHandler();
      addFormValueEventHandler();
    };

    initialize();

 label {
   color: transparent;
   display: block;
 }
 input[type=text] {
   display: block;
   border-width: 0 0 1px !important;
   border-radius: 0;
   border-style: solid;
   border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12);
 }
 .input-focused:not(.input-invalid) label {
   color: rgb(16, 108, 200);
 }
 .input-focused:not(.input-invalid) input[type=text] {
   border-color: rgb(16, 108, 200);
 }
 .input-has-value:not(.input-invalid):not(.input-focused) label {
   color: #595959;
 }
 .input-invalid.input-focused label,
 .input-invalid.input-has-value label {
   color: #ff0000;
 }
 .input-invalid input[type=text] {
   border-color: #ff0000;
 }
 .input-invalid input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder {
   color: #ff0000;
 }
 .input-invalid input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder::after {
   content: "2716";
   /* "X" */
   font-size: 18px;
   color: #ff0000;
   padding-right: 0;
   float: right;
 }
 .input-valid input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder::after {
   content: "2714";
   /* checkmark */
   font-size: 18px;
   color: #438D5B;
   padding-right: 0;
   float: right;
 }
 .input-invalid input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder::after {
   visibility: visible;
 }

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.0.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-xs-12 input-container input-required">
      <label for="merchantAddress">Merchant Address</label>
      <input type="text" class="full-width" id="merchantAddress" placeholder="Merchant Address" />
    </div>
    <div class="col-xs-12 input-container input-valid">
      <label for="merchantCity">Merchant City</label>
      <input type="text" class="full-width" id="merchantCity" placeholder="Merchant City" value="" />
    </div>
    <div class="col-xs-12 input-container input-invalid">
      <label for="merchantState">Merchant State Code</label>
      <input type="text" class="full-width" id="merchantState" placeholder="Merchant State Code" value="" />
    </div>
    <div class="col-xs-12 input-container input-invalid input-required">
      <label for="merchantZip">Merchant Zip Code</label>
      <input type="text" class="full-width" id="merchantZip" placeholder="Merchant Zip Code" value="Bad Data" />
    </div>
  </div>
</div>