Getting a form to submit from JavaScript?

Question

I have a form in a JSP as follows:

<form action = "<c:url value = '/displayVisualisation' />" 
    title = "${item.visDescription}" 
    method = "post" onClick = "return confirmRequest('Do you want to change  to
        another visualisation type?');">                       
    <input class = "text" type = "text" value = "${item.visTypeName}"> 

</form>

Which calls a Javascript method as follows:

function confirmRequest(questionText) {
    var confirmRequest = confirm(questionText);   
    if (confirmRequest) {
        return true;
    }

    else {
        return false;
    }                    
}

To ask the user for a reply to the question asked. However, the confirm prompt appears but does not perform the displayVisualisation action!

Can anyone suggest why or help me implement this correctly?

In other examples, where the action is triggered by clicking a graphic, all is well.

Have you checked the error console of Safari, Firefox or Chrome? Is there any error message? — Reporter
– Reporter, Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 11:51
Not an answer to your question, but your function could be rewritten as: function confirmRequest(questionText) { return confirm(questionText); } — Ash Eldritch
– Ash Eldritch, Commented Aug 18, 2011 at 12:21

Mike G · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-18 12:30:59Z

1

Since you are using onclick, return true; in your confirmRequest function is simply allowing the rest of the clickHandler chain to be executed. I think you also need to explicitly submit the form at this time, in the true case.

Here is one way to do that, using only javascript:

function confirmRequest(questionText) {
  var confirmRequest = confirm(questionText);   
  if (confirmRequest) {
     document.forms[0].submit();
     return true;
  }
  else {
      return false;
  }
}

edited Aug 18, 2011 at 12:30

answered Aug 18, 2011 at 12:22

Mike G

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4 Comments

Mr Morgan Over a year ago

onsubmit fails in both FF and IE.

Mike G Over a year ago

See revised, you can continue to use onclick, but need to explicitly submit

Mr Morgan Over a year ago

I've adjusted it slightly to allow it to work to a form passed as a parameter. But it seems to work. Many thanks.

Mike G Over a year ago

Yes, that would be more flexible. No problem!

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