How to create readonly textbox-like structure using html (div/span) and css?

I have a web page with a read-only text box which shows some HTML code:

<input type="text" readonly="true" value="<table>...</table>"/>

There is also submit button, which causes page post back and XSS validation to trigger. I don't want to turn off XSS.

I also tried disabled="disabled", but then the user is not able to copy the text in the text box.

So I thought that using div and span which can give same look and feel would suffice and negate the need for turning off the validation. While trying t开发者_JAVA技巧his, I am struggling to restrict the string in one line. As in text box, it is a single row with column size and text is shown nicely, we can also copy text.

Is there a better solution for what I'm trying to do?

If I understand you correctly you're trying to show some example code in a web interface that is formatted for easy consumption by the end user.

As a general rule, you should wrap code snippets in <pre></pre> tags, I would then suggest having a go at using: http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter to format the code as if you were viewing in an IDE.

This will prevent you from having to turn of the XSS checker.

you could use <pre> tags

check this link