javascript to php

gnome354

Hello,

[The Problem:]
Is there a way to extract form data and send it to a php script without having the user depress some type of submit button?

[Why am I doing this...]
I am trying to mimic the remove capability that hotmail uses when a user wants to remove a email.

[This is what I have done so far...]
I have a form that shows a list of user names. Next to each user name is a checkbox.

After checking one or more checkboxes the user then clicks on a link which executes a javascript which checks if any checkboxes have been checked and then gathers the value data from the checkbox.

Where do I go from here? How do I take the information from the javascript and import it to php? Any suggestions?

Common questions and answer you may have.

[Q] Why not just use a submit button?

[A] It messes up the flow of the page.

[Q] Why not change the flow?

[A] Possible, but not desireable, more work then necessary in my opinion.

[Q] Why not use an image submit button?

[A] Because it will still have a button look to it. I want a link look (if possible).

Neumy

As far as I can see - you are out of luck!

What you want is the client to talk to the server without passing anything. Sorry! POST or GET are the only way for the client to talk to the server.

I believe if you don't want a Submit button - you can use the action submit() in an anchor to keep your look.

Hope this helps.

gnome354

action submit()?

I don't know much about javascript as you can probably tell. But I will look into the javascript submit() action. I will let you know what I find.

Thanks for your direction.

Neumy

A really simple html code to use an anchor as a Submit button is this:

<form action="http://www.google.com">
<a href="#" onClick="javascript:submit();">click here</a>
</form>

tomwerner

A slight alteration to the code given above, you need to add a name to the form and change the js slightly like so:

<form action="http://www.google.com" name="form1"> 
<a href="#" onClick="javascript:form1.submit();">click here</a> 
</form>

One thing is, this method only works with GET, even if you use POST the data still gets put into the query string.

gnome354

Thank you both of your help.

I will try it and see what happens. Again, thank you both for sharing your knowledge and for your time.

Weedpacket

I've sketched out a couple of methods in this thread.

gnome354

Thank you all for your help. I have monkeyed around with the options shared above and what I found works best for me is the javascript:formName.submit() code.

Once again thank you all for your help.

xDeadxBeatx

I'm not sure but i think you could use the style function within the <input> tags just use the stlye thing to make a submit button look like a check box. That way when you click a "check box" it will delete the message right away.

Stinger51

I don't understand, how does using a submit button mess up the flow of the page? What am I missing here? You do want to submit this page to the server, correct?

Also, why not just eliminate the JS and do everything in PHP? Have the next PHP form validate what was checked, and take it from there.

Again, what am I missing here. 😕