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HTMLHelp Forums _ Markup (HTML, XHTML, XML) _ Submit Button
Posted by: RowanB Mar 21 2019, 06:34 AM
If I have a submit button, like this:
<button type='submit' name='newevent' value='newevent' formmethod='post' formaction='edit_event.php'>Create New Event</button>
does it have to be inside a form?
If I have several submit buttons, each submitting to a different page, does each one have to be within its own form, or can I just have one form for all of them?
Does the formaction property of the button override the action property of the form?
If I do not have to include the submit button in a form, how can I create some more values to be returned by the submit? I.e. if in the action page I want to be able to read the value of $_POST['source'], which may be different for each submit button, how do I set these values in the HTML?
Thanks - Rowan
Posted by: pandy Mar 21 2019, 07:54 AM
If you want it to do something, yes.
Does the formaction property of the button override the action property of the form?
Yes, I think that's the point of formaction and formmethod, that they override the corresponding attributes in the form tag and yes, a from can have multiple submit buttons. You can read about the basics with multiple submit buttons here: http://htmlhelp.com/faq/html/forms.html#two-submit . I don't know if everything it says there still is valid when you use formaction and formmethod though.
Formaction and formmethod are new with HTML5. I think you use action and method in the form tag as usual and then the new attributes for each submit button override that. Older browsers won't support this. I haven't read up on this in detail, so reservations for that.
Posted by: Christian J Mar 21 2019, 01:46 PM
If I have a submit button, like this:
<button type='submit' name='newevent' value='newevent' formmethod='post' formaction='edit_event.php'>Create New Event</button>
does it have to be inside a form?
It can be outside if you give the FORM element an ID and the submit button a corresponding FORM attribute value:
<input type="text" name="foo" value="bar">
</form>
<input type="submit" form="foo" value="Submit">
This is not supported by IE11 though (currently used by about 2%, according to https://caniuse.com/usage-table).
Posted by: pandy Mar 21 2019, 06:47 PM
Duh. I hadn't noticed that one. But what's the purpose? The only thing I can think of is layout reasons.
Posted by: Christian J Mar 22 2019, 05:57 AM
It certainly doesn't improve the HTML structure, can't see how helps accessibility either. But the principle seems the same as when using LABEL and FOR attributes that are associated with a form element somewhere else on the page.
Posted by: pandy Mar 22 2019, 07:45 AM
But at least label usually is within the form and close to the input.
Posted by: Christian J Mar 22 2019, 01:26 PM
BTW, the FORM attribute can be used on all https://www.w3.org/TR/html/sec-forms.html#reassociateable-element form elements, seemingly allowing things like this:
<form id="f"></form>
<input type="text" name="foo" form="f" value="bar">
<input type="submit" form="f" value="Send">
Maybe this helps portability somehow.
Posted by: pandy Mar 22 2019, 06:29 PM
Yikes. 
Posted by: Christian J Mar 22 2019, 06:59 PM
Seems you can also put a submit button inside another form than the one it submits:
<input type="text" name="foo2" form="f2" value="bar2">
<input type="submit" form="f2" value="Submit form 2">
</form>
<form id="f2">
<input type="text" name="foo1" form="f1" value="bar1">
<input type="submit" form="f1" value="Submit form 1">
</form>
Posted by: pandy Mar 22 2019, 08:59 PM
Progress is nice, isn't it? 
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