---
title: Dynamic Text Spans
short: Dynamic Text Spans
type: plugins
category: Automation
cat: automation
order: 45
meta_title: Dynamic Text Spans
meta_description: Annotate edited text

tier: enterprise

!!! note
For information about modifying this plugin or creating your own custom plugins, see Customize and Build Your Own Plugins.

 For general plugin information, see [Plugins for projects](/guide/plugins) and [Plugin FAQ](faq).

About

This plugin “binds” a TextArea to a Text field, keeping them in sync as you edit. You can then apply labels to the text in the Text field, allowing you annotate text that is unique from the text you imported.

How this plugin works:

1. It defines two tag names:

   • TextArea is transcription
   • Text is extraction_text
2. It captures the current annotation ID so that it can stop running when you switch regions.
3. In init(), it polls every 300 ms until it finds the whose name starts with "transcription" (Label Studio appends random suffixes).</li>
4. Once found, it marks it _already_loaded and starts tick(), which runs every 300 ms:

• If the DOM node got replaced (e.g. you re-loaded or changed annotation), it re-queries for it.
• If you’ve moved to a different annotation ID, it stops.
• It grabs the live DOM value ($ta.value) or falls back to the annotation’s last saved result.
• It compares that string to the current _value of your extraction_text control.
• If they differ, it calls text.setRemoteValue(val). This uses the Label Studio frontend API to update the other field’s value.

The net effect is a real-time mirror: whatever you type or paste into the "transcription" TextArea automatically appears in the "extraction_text" Text field. And, importantly, the text you annotate in the Text field can be exported with your results.

Plugin

const TEXTAREA_NAME = "transcription";
const TEXT_NAME = "extraction_text";

const current_annotation = LSI.annotation.id;
(function init() {
  // textarea results have names like "tag_name:h4$h", so we use ^=
  let $ta = document.querySelector(`textarea[name^="${TEXTAREA_NAME}"]`);
  if (!$ta) return setTimeout(init, 300);
  if ($ta._already_loaded) return;

  $ta._already_loaded = true;
  (function tick() {
    // it can be another textarea with submitted result
    if (!$ta?.isConnected) {
      $ta = document.querySelector(`textarea[name^="${TEXTAREA_NAME}"]`);
    }
    // if we lost textarea/moved out of current annotation — break the cycle
    if (!$ta?.isConnected || LSI.annotation?.id !== current_annotation) return;
    setTimeout(tick, 300);

    const textarea = LSI.annotation.names.get(TEXTAREA_NAME);
    const text = LSI.annotation.names.get(TEXT_NAME);

    const val = String($ta.value ?? textarea.result?.value.text ?? "");
    if (text._value !== val) {
      text.setRemoteValue(val);
    }
  })();
})();

Related LSI instance methods:

• LSI.annotation

Labeling interface

<View>
  <Header value="1. Transcribe the audio below:"/>
  <Audio name="audio" value="$audio" zoom="true" hotkey="ctrl+enter"/>

  <TextArea
    name="transcription"
    toName="audio"
    rows="4"
    editable="true"
    maxSubmissions="1"
    showSubmitButton="false"
    value="$text"
  />

  <Header value="2. Extract spans from the transcript:"/>
  <!-- force HyperText into the DOM via non-breaking space -->
  <View idAttr="extractionBlock">
    <Text
      name="extraction_text"
      idAttr="extractionText"
      value="$transcription"
      inline="false"
    />
  </View>

  <Labels
    name="span_labels"
    toName="extraction_text"
    choice="multiple"
    showInline="true"
  >
    <Label value="EntityType1" background="#8cc6ff"/>
    <Label value="EntityType2" background="#ffa39e"/>
  </Labels>
</View>

Related tags:

• View
• Header
• TextArea
• Audio
• Text
• Labels

Sample data

{
  "data": {
    "audio": "https://data.heartex.net/librispeech/dev-clean/3536/8226/3536-8226-0024.flac.wav",
    "transcription": "",
    "text": "this is a test"
  }
}