Quick question about forms

[pumpkinpie]

Is there a way to submit a form, using a text link, instead of a submit button?

Thanks!

[lilleman]

Hi,

Yes, you can use Javascript to accomplish that. However, a solution like that would only work for those who have Javascript enabled. Those who have disabled it will (probably) not be able to use the form correctly.

<script type="text/javascript">
 function submitForm(sFormId)
 {
   if( document.forms[sFormId] )
     document.forms[sFormId].submit();
 }
</script>

<form id="foo" action="quicktest.html" method="get">
 <input type="hidden" name="foo" value="bar" />
 <a href="#" onclick="submitForm('foo')">submit</a>
</form>

[realestate]

I guess depending on what you are doing you can get the same effect. Our site has a search button on search page which is a form send. A few months ago visiting some dynamic url would give the same result. But you if you are adding values to form before submitting, link won't work. I am not an expert but I think I gave a correct answer.

[AutisticCuckoo]

As lilleman said, you can do it with JavaScript, but that raises accessibility issues.
An alternative way might be to use an <input&#160;type="submit"> element, and style it to look like an ordinary link using CSS. You may run into trouble in IE if you want to use the :hover pseudo-class, but that could be resolved with JavaScript onmouseover events. (Not as much of an accessibility issue, since it's only styling, whereas not being able to submit at all is a definite barrier.)

/* For CSS2-compliant browsers */
input[type="submit"] {
  padding:0;
  border:0;
  background:transparent;
  color:#00c;
  text-decoration:underline;
}

(For IE, you'd probably have to use a class, since it doesn't understand attribute selectors.)

The text-decoration doesn't seem to work in Mozilla 1.7.5 or Opera 8, but you could use a bottom border instead.

[lilleman]

Hi,

(For IE, you'd probably have to use a class, since it doesn't understand attribute selectors.)

One way to fix that would be to use the IE7 "patch".