De-activating the Return Key ???

habbardone

I have a rather long form and if someone presses Return by mistake then the form
gets submitted (with alot of unfilled fields and then errors).

How can I disable the return key so that the submit button MUST be pressed in order to submit the form ?
Thanks

PS I am not sure is this is a js thing or php ??

devinemke

key presses, mouse clicks, and the like are all client-side issues and thus have nothing to do with PHP.

id10t

You want to use js to intercept the keypress event... here's some old code I wrote many moons ago (pong game using layers and keyboard as paddles)..

if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Netscape") >= 0 && parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 4) {
	var nn4 = true 
}

if (nn4){
	document.captureEvents(Event.KEYDOWN)
}
document.onkeydown = keyPress;   

function keyPress(d){
	if (nn4){
		key=d.which;
	}


if(key==13){
	// ENTER was pressed, do
            // something 
}


} //end keyPress

tekky

Or instead of relying on something that many people disable... write input valididation into your processing page, and have it kick them back marking the error'd fields and defaulting to the previous inputs so they can continue where they left off....

Pseudo code:
if $error echo 'Items in red are required items'
<form action=PHPSELF>
(if $errname make red)Name: (if $POST['name'] echo it) Joe
(if $errage make red)Age: (if $POST['age'] echo it) 2
(if $errjob make red)Job: (if $POST['job'] echo it)
(if $errmarried make red)Marital Status: (if $POST['married'] echo it)
</form>
(enter is pressed -- I generally use PHPSELF since its the easiest way to ensure values are always avaliable)
check $_POST vars for required input (4 vars in this case)
2 missing vars... set $error to reflect this and set an var for each bad input name
if no failed validation make your SQL queries and then use a header() call to refresh to the next page you need....

thats how I would do it

habbardone

Thanks,
I am doing the validation server side with php.
I just wanted to stop them from sending the form before its ready.

Roger_Ramjet

Use a javascript function in the page to check for required fields. It saves users having to wait for a server call and page reload. You can pop up an Alert message and set the focus to the missing input element - looks a lot slicker than the other option.

Of course your target script still needs to validate the post data, if only for those very few people who have javascript turned completely off.