I have an HTML form that currently just posts the data directly to a PHP file. I want to update the code so that the submit button sends the data to a JavaScript function so that I can create an AJAX function. Is it possible for the submit button to activate a JavaScript function rather than posting to a php file? The only thing I have e up with is below, which quite obviously does not work:
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function ajax(){
//...
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form action="ajax();">
<!-- ... -->
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
I have an HTML form that currently just posts the data directly to a PHP file. I want to update the code so that the submit button sends the data to a JavaScript function so that I can create an AJAX function. Is it possible for the submit button to activate a JavaScript function rather than posting to a php file? The only thing I have e up with is below, which quite obviously does not work:
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function ajax(){
//...
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form action="ajax();">
<!-- ... -->
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
4 Answers
Reset to default 6You can give the "submit" input a "click" handler that explicitly prevents the default behavior from being carried out.
<input type='submit' value='Submit' onclick='ajax(event)'>
Then in the function:
function ajax(event) {
if ('preventDefault' in event) event.preventDefault();
event.returnValue = false; // for IE before IE9
// ...
}
edit @Esailija points out correctly that another option is to handle the "submit" event on the <form> element instead. The function would look pretty much the same, in fact exactly the same, but you'd wire it up like this:
<form id='yourForm' onsubmit='ajax(event)'>
That will also trap things like the "Enter" key action, etc.
Of course you can. But it's more useful to call your Javascript function in the input like this :
<input type="submit" value="Submit" onclick="ajax();" />
And remove the action part in the form.
I jQuery you can use event.preventDefault(); otherwise just use return false;
http://jsfiddle/mKQmR/
http://jsfiddle/mKQmR/1/
Pointy is correct... just add a click handler to the submit button, however make sure the last line of the click handler returns "false" to prevent the form from actually being posted to the form's action.
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function ajax(){
//...
return false;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form action="thispage.htm">
<!-- ... -->
<input type="submit" value="Submit" onclick="ajax();" />
</form>
</body>
</html>