You can use copy, cut, and paste event handlers to prevent copying, cutting, and pasting text. Register these event listeners in a useEffect hook and remove them on dismounting the component.
Prevent copy and paste on the input level
The input properties onCopy, onPaste, and onCut handle the same at the input level. The disadvantage is that you must apply these three properties to all the inputs you want to protect from copying and pasting. Here is the implementation.
import { ClipboardEvent } from "react"
const SignupForm = () =>{
const preventCopyPaste = (e: ClipboardEvent<HTMLInputElement>) => {
e.preventDefault()
alert("Copying and pasting is not allowed!")
}
return(
<div>
<form>
<div>
<label>Email: </label>
<input type="email"
placeholder="abc@learnbestcoding.com"
onCopy={(e) => preventCopyPaste(e)}
onPaste={(e) => preventCopyPaste(e)}
onCut={(e) => preventCopyPaste(e)}
/>
</div>
<div>
<label>Confirm Email: </label>
<input type="email"
onCopy={(e) => preventCopyPaste(e)}
onPaste={(e) => preventCopyPaste(e)}
onCut={(e) => preventCopyPaste(e)}
/>
</div>
</form>
</div>
)
}
export default SignupFormNote that I call the preventCopyPaste method on all three events. The e.preventDefault() is the method that prevents copying and pasting. This method is ok to protect a few inputs as our HTML becomes lengthy and unreadable.
Prevent copy and paste with a custom hook
We can use a custom hook to achieve the same result. In that way, the restrictions are applied to the whole component. Individual event handlers at every input level are not necessary.
Here is the hook that does the restrictions
import { useEffect } from "react";
type EventType = "paste" | "copy" | "cut"
interface RestrictCopyPasteProps {
window: Window
actions: [EventType?,EventType?,EventType?]
}
export const useRestrictCopyPaste = (props: RestrictCopyPasteProps) => {
useEffect(() => {
props.actions?.forEach((action) => {
action && window.addEventListener(action, preventPaste);
})
return () => {
props.actions.forEach((action) => {
action && window.removeEventListener(action, preventPaste);
})
};
}, [props.window, props.actions]);
const preventPaste = (e: Event) => {
alert("Copying and pasting is not allowed!")
e.preventDefault()
}
}The usage is simple as importing the hook into the page we want to apply restrictions.
import { useRestrictCopyPaste } from "./useRestrictCopyPasre"
const SignupForm = () =>{
useRestrictCopyPaste({window, actions:["copy","cut","paste"]})
return(
<div>
<form>
<div>
<label>Email: </label>
<input type="email" placeholder="abc@learnbestcoding.com" />
</div>
<div>
<label>Confirm Email: </label>
<input type="email"/>
</div>
</form>
</div>
)
}
export default SignupForm
