Textarea
<gcds-textarea>

Also called: text box.

A textarea is a space to enter long-form information in response to a question or instruction.

• GitHub
• Figma

Build a textarea

Use textareas to ask for information when you're expecting a freeform response that could span multiple lines.

The textarea gives users the option to provide the information they want to share in a long form response.

Coding and accessibility for textareas

Apply required attributes

For the textarea to function properly, always use the following attributes with <gcds-textarea>:

• name
• label
• textarea-id

Size textareas to fit response type

• Use textareas for responses that may need more than 75 characters.
• Make the height of a textarea proportionate to the amount of text you expect someone to enter. You can set the height of a textarea by specifying the rows attribute.
• Avoid setting the width any lower than 50% (1/2 width).
• Use the maximum for responses without a fixed length.

Handle error messages and validation

• Use the required attribute to activate the required validator. Validation will happen by default on the onBlur event. A missing or invalid entry will prompt an inline error message with preset text.

• If you need to change the validation event, use the validate-on attribute. Validation can happen on blur, when the element loses focus, or manually with the validate() method.

• Use the required attribute for fields that must be filled in. This places "required" at the end of the label.

• Use the error-message attribute to include an error message text for all required inputs. Avoid using error messages for optional ones.

• For optional fields, avoid adding the error-message attribute.

• For an optional field that needs validation based on user input (like validating an email address format), opt to add custom validation with a custom error message.

Include a hint text for task success

• Use the hint attribute to add hint text to help a person provide a complete value in the input and avoid an error state.

• Avoid adding hint text in the field (sometimes called placeholder text) where it will disappear once the field is selected or a response starts to be entered.

Hide the textarea label

• Set the hide-label attribute to true to visually hide the label while maintaining it for assistive technologies.
• Avoid adding hint text when you’re hiding the label or else provide an empty hint string.

Get your code

Generate an instance of the component you need by selecting its code properties.

1. Explore by choosing different code values to generate the instance you want.

2. Get the code and pull it into your environment.

3. Add any copy you need to the component (like text for a label).

Note: The code builder uses English for all code elements, which follows standard practice.