How Does Text Overflow Ellipsis Work in Firefox, and What Are the Workarounds?

text-overflow:ellipsis in Firefox 4 (and FF5): A Comprehensive Guide

In the world of web development, the text-overflow:ellipsis CSS property stands as a testament to Microsoft's foresight. This property allows text to overflow an element's boundary and be truncated with an ellipsis (...) indicator.

Unfortunately, Firefox has been lagging behind other browsers in its support for text-overflow:ellipsis. The Firefox developers have debated the issue for years, but implementation remains elusive.

The Demise of the -moz-binding Hack

Once upon a time, Firefox 3 users could resort to a hack using the -moz-binding feature to enable ellipsis support. However, this solution hit a roadblock with the removal of -moz-binding in Firefox 4.

JavaScript as a Last Resort

Developers may consider using JavaScript as a fallback. jQuery offers a simple solution for truncating text:

var limit = 50;
var ellipsis = "...";
if( $('#limitedWidthTextBox').val().length > limit) {
    var trimmedText = $('#limitedWidthTextBox').val().substring(0, limit - 4);
    trimmedText += ellipsis;
    $('#limitedWidthTextBox').val(trimmedText);
}

A More Elegant Approach

For a neater solution, attach a CSS class (e.g., fixWidth) to elements with fixed widths. Then, use JavaScript to handle truncation for all elements with this class:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('.fixWidth').each(function() {
        var limit = 50;
        var ellipsis = "...";
        var text = $(this).val();
        if (text.length > limit) {
            var trimmedText = text.substring(0, limit - 4);
            trimmedText += ellipsis;
            $(this).val(trimmedText);
        }
    });
});

Firefox's Redemption

Finally, after years of anticipation, Firefox Aurora has incorporated ellipsis support, paving the way for its release in Firefox 7. This long-awaited feature brings Firefox up to par with other browsers, offering developers a native solution for ellipsis truncation.

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