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Submit

A submit button on an HTML form. A submit button causes a form to be submitted.

Client-side object

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0
Navigator 3.0: added type property; added onBlur and onFocus event handlers; added blur and focus methods
Navigator 4.0: added handleEvent method.

Created by

The HTML INPUT tag, with "submit" as the value of the TYPE attribute. For a given form, the JavaScript runtime engine creates an appropriate Submit object and puts it in the elements array of the corresponding Form object. You access a Submit object by indexing this array. You can index the array either by number or, if supplied, by using the value of the NAME attribute.

Event handlers

Security

Navigator 4.0: Submitting a form to a mailto: or news: URL requires the UniversalSendMail privilege. For information on security in Navigator 4.0, see Chapter 7, "JavaScript Security," in the JavaScript Guide.

Description

A Submit object on a form looks as follows:

A Submit object is a form element and must be defined within a FORM tag.

Clicking a submit button submits a form to the URL specified by the form's action property. This action always loads a new page into the client; it may be the same as the current page, if the action so specifies or is not specified.

The submit button's onClick event handler cannot prevent a form from being submitted; instead, use the form's onSubmit event handler or use the submit method instead of a Submit object. See the examples for the Form object.

Property Summary

form
Specifies the form containing the Submit object.

name
Reflects the NAME attribute.

type
Reflects the TYPE attribute.

value
Reflects the VALUE attribute.

Method Summary

blur
Removes focus from the submit button.

click
Simulates a mouse-click on the submit button.

focus
Gives focus to the submit button.

handleEvent
Invokes the handler for the specified event.

Examples

The following example creates a Submit object called submitButton. The text "Done" is displayed on the face of the button.

<INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="submitButton" VALUE="Done">
See also the examples for the Form.

See also

Button, Form, Reset, Form.submit, onSubmit

Properties

form

An object reference specifying the form containing the submit button.

Property of

Submit

Read-only

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0

Description

Each form element has a form property that is a reference to the element's parent form. This property is especially useful in event handlers, where you might need to refer to another element on the current form.

Examples

The following example shows a form with several elements. When the user clicks button2, the function showElements displays an alert dialog box containing the names of each element on the form myForm.

<SCRIPT>
function showElements(theForm) {
   str = "Form Elements of form " + theForm.name + ": \n "
   for (i = 0; i < theForm.length; i++)
      str += theForm.elements[i].name + "\n"
   alert(str)
}
</SCRIPT>
<FORM NAME="myForm">
Form name:<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="text1" VALUE="Beluga">
<P>
<INPUT NAME="button1" TYPE="button" VALUE="Show Form Name"
   onClick="this.form.text1.value=this.form.name">
<INPUT NAME="button2" TYPE="submit" VALUE="Show Form Elements"
   onClick="showElements(this.form)">
</FORM>
The alert dialog box displays the following text:

Form Elements of form myForm:
text1
button1
button2

See also

Form

name

A string specifying the submit button's name.

Property of

Submit

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0

Security

Navigator 3.0: This property is tainted by default. For information on data tainting, see "JavaScript Security".

Description

The name property initially reflects the value of the NAME attribute. Changing the name property overrides this setting.

Do not confuse the name property with the label displayed on the Submit button. The value property specifies the label for this button. The name property is not displayed on the screen; it is used to refer programmatically to the button.

If multiple objects on the same form have the same NAME attribute, an array of the given name is created automatically. Each element in the array represents an individual Form object. Elements are indexed in source order starting at 0. For example, if two Text elements and a Submit element on the same form have their NAME attribute set to "myField", an array with the elements myField[0], myField[1], and myField[2] is created. You need to be aware of this situation in your code and know whether myField refers to a single element or to an array of elements.

Examples

In the following example, the valueGetter function uses a for loop to iterate over the array of elements on the valueTest form. The msgWindow window displays the names of all the elements on the form:

newWindow=window.open("http://home.netscape.com")
function valueGetter() {
   var msgWindow=window.open("")
   for (var i = 0; i < newWindow.document.valueTest.elements.length; i++) {
      msgWindow.document.write(newWindow.document.valueTest.elements[i].name + "<BR>")
   }
}

See also

Submit.value

type

For all Submit objects, the value of the type property is "submit". This property specifies the form element's type.

Property of

Submit

Read-only

Implemented in

Navigator 3.0

Examples

The following example writes the value of the type property for every element on a form.

for (var i = 0; i < document.form1.elements.length; i++) {
   document.writeln("<BR>type is " + document.form1.elements[i].type)
}

value

A string that reflects the submit button's VALUE attribute.

Property of

Submit

Read-only

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0

Security

Navigator 3.0: This property is tainted by default. For information on data tainting, see "JavaScript Security".

Description

When a VALUE attribute is specified in HTML, the value property is that string and is displayed on the face of the button. When a VALUE attribute is not specified in HTML, the value property for the button is the string "Submit Query."

Do not confuse the value property with the name property. The name property is not displayed on the screen; it is used to refer programmatically to the button.

Examples

The following function evaluates the value property of a group of buttons and displays it in the msgWindow window:

function valueGetter() {
   var msgWindow=window.open("")
   msgWindow.document.write("submitButton.value is " +
      document.valueTest.submitButton.value + "<BR>")
   msgWindow.document.write("resetButton.value is " +
      document.valueTest.resetButton.value + "<BR>")
   msgWindow.document.write("helpButton.value is " +
      document.valueTest.helpButton.value + "<BR>")
   msgWindow.document.close()
}
This example displays the following values:

Query Submit
Reset
Help
The previous example assumes the buttons have been defined as follows:

<INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="submitButton">
<INPUT TYPE="reset" NAME="resetButton">
<INPUT TYPE="button" NAME="helpButton" VALUE="Help">

See also

Submit.name

Methods

blur

Removes focus from the submit button.

Method of

Submit

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0

Syntax

blur()

Parameters

None

See also

Submit.focus

click

Simulates a mouse-click on the submit button, but does not trigger an object's onClick event handler.

Method of

Submit

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0

Syntax

click()

Parameters

None

focus

Navigates to the submit button and gives it focus.

Method of

Submit

Implemented in

Navigator 2.0

Syntax

focus()

Parameters

None

See also

Submit.blur

handleEvent

Invokes the handler for the specified event.

Method of

Submit

Implemented in

Navigator 4.0

Syntax

handleEvent(event)

Parameters

event
The name of an event for which the specified object has an event handler.

Description

For information on handling events, see "General Information about Events".


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Last Updated: 10/31/97 12:32:12


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