[Resolved] How to pass variables using the enter key?

mellow

I have a search script which receives variables from a form.

when I hit submit with the mouse it works fine.

When I hit the enter key it fails.

In another forum I thought I saw the way to make this work is to have a hidden input named submit to pass variables if a user hits the enter key instead of the button.

Is this correct understanding?

Will this work if a user hits either key?

Thanks for any help.

devinemke

note: this thread has absolutely nothing to do with PHP

anyway, on most browsers (IE and Fiefox at least) if any form element has focus and the enter key is hit then the form is submitted. this behavior of course could be overidden using javascript but again this is beyond the scope of a PHP forum.

Roger_Ramjet

I take it that your target sript has something like isset($_POST['submit']) .

2 things:
1 your form should have a validation function in the page head to check the input before posting the form data. Any javascript source will have dozens to choose from.

<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- Begin
function val_search() {
   if (document.form.search_string.value == "")
   { alert ("Please enter a search string");
   document.form.search_string.focus();
				return false;
   }
   else {
      return true;
   }
}
//  End -->
</script>
</head>

That will ensure that however the form is submitted, it has a string to search on. (you could use the same function to check if the submit button had been pressed and return false + set focus ,ie not post, untill it had)

having validated the presense of data, our target script has no need to check if the submit button was pressed, but only if isset($_POST['search_string']), and this only incase of bookmarks or missdirection.

mellow

I beg to differ with devinemke-->
"note: this thread has absolutely nothing to do with PHP "

This has everything to do with PHP. It is how to get your script started when someone uses the enter key and not the submit buitton. I was getting mysql errors when I was trying this in development. You don't pass variables to HTML. Maybe I'm an idiot but you can't start an engine without gasoline.

Roger Ramjet: Thanks, that is a great idea I hadn't known about.

It seems to work.

Thanks.

devinemke

Originally posted by mellow
This has everything to do with PHP. It is how to get your script started when someone uses the enter key and not the submit buitton. I was getting mysql errors when I was trying this in development. You don't pass variables to HTML. Maybe I'm an idiot but you can't start an engine without gasoline.

your question essentially was how do i submit a form using the keyboard instead of the mouse. things like HTML forms, submit buttons, enter keys and mouse clicks are all things that have to do with the client, not the server. let me ask you this: if i wrote a form processor entirely in ASP and asked a question about how to submit an HTML form using the keyboard would you still say "This has everything to do with PHP"?

this whole paradigm is like driving into a car mechanic's shop and saying "i have a leaky faucet in my bathroom" and justifying it by saying "i use my car to drive to my house where the bathroom is".

Roger_Ramjet

Well, you're both right. It is a case of mellow not understanding how html, post, and other client-side components work: not php. It is also about php since this lack of knowledge led to an error of logic in the target php script: checking the wrong post var.