clipboard.js is a lightweight JavaScript library that provides modern copy-to-clipboard functionality without requiring Flash or heavy frameworks.
The library solves the problem of making clipboard operations simple and dependency-free. Rather than relying on Flash or complex configuration, it uses the native Clipboard API and HTML5 data attributes to enable copying and cutting text. The approach leverages event delegation to handle multiple trigger elements efficiently, replacing many individual event listeners with a single delegated listener to minimize memory consumption.
Developers should choose this tool if they need straightforward copy-to-clipboard functionality in a minimal package. It suits projects where keeping bundle size small matters and Flash dependencies are unacceptable. The library supports three primary use cases: copying text from another element via a data-clipboard-target attribute, cutting text from input or textarea elements via a data-clipboard-action attribute, and copying arbitrary text from a data-clipboard-text attribute. It can be instantiated with a DOM selector, individual HTML element, or list of elements, and is available through npm or direct download.
The project maintains an active build pipeline with continuous integration checks. Development activity shows consistent attention to the codebase with regular updates and maintenance of the repository structure.
