Develop Reference

Submitting a value of input without form

I'm creating a website game and currently I am struggling with something I will name "dialogue".
Initially I tried to approach this by creating a form element, but clicking enter or submitting it ended up with page refresh, which ruins everything.
So I used inpute type text without form that looks like this:
You are
<input type="text" id="dead">
<input type="submit" onclick="dead()">
and dead function looking currently like this, later it's gonna check for certain value, and if the value is true it's gonna run another code:
var talk = document.getElementById("dead").value;
function dead() {
alert(talk);
}
And I don't know how to save input from a form so it would be detected by JS and then used as variable in boolean check. How can I solve this problem? If there is a way to use a form tag without refreshing the page that could also work.

You can handle the submit event of your form like this:
document.getElementById('yourFormId').onsubmit = function(e) {
// your code goes here...
e.preventDefault(); // this will prevent the default operation of your form within this event
return false;
}
Or create a function:
function handleForm(e) {
// your code goes here...
e.preventDefault();
return false;
}
And add this to your form tag:
<form onsubmit="return handleForm(this);">

To be able sending some value without refresh the page you can use Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (AJAX) and if you're working with pure Javascript without some frameworks you can see a good documentation about Ajax.
But of course I suggest to use some frameworks like Jquery to make your works more easier

Use javascript AND PHP in one <input> tag?

I feel like I've looked around for the answer for this question, but most of the responses are very hacky: involving javascript that pops in via AJAX, redirects and other ways of modifying the DOM on the fly.
What I want to do is make the submit button disappear when a user submits a document (javascript) and submit the message via mail (php). The code I have is the following:
<form action="" method="post">
...
<input onclick="removeElements()" id="subButton" class="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="submit">
The php mail function is in the same document.
Here is the removeElements() function:
var el = document.getElementById("subButton");
el.remove();
document.getElementById("thankYouMessage").setAttribute("style", "display:block");
The submit function works without the javascript call, but when I add the onclick="removeElements()" part, then the javascript part starts working, but the php is no longer executed.
I know that there are other methods for doing this, but in this case, I'm actually curious about why this doesn't function as I had planned. By removing the submit button, am I in effect killing the child PHP process mid(or pre)-execution?
Thanks!

If you add onclick you will have to fire the submit manually.
The other option is add your javascript call code in onsubmit="removeElements()" on the form tag. This way, it will execute your code after executing submit
Related question here

Don't remove the button, rather set visible: hidden or display: none for its style. This way it will still be in the document and will work, it just won't be shown.

When you send the form reloads your page so I suggest:
Using Ajax and only delete button on the response, or
Not generate the button when reloads your page.
Jquery Ajax examples: You can see them here api.jquery.com/jquery.ajax/
Regards.

You could simple use the .hide functionality which JQuery gives you. It's very simple to use and very clean.
Example1 using JQuery:
$("#FormID").submit(function(e)
{
e.preventDefault();
// Hide button
$("#subButton").hide();
// Display thank-you message
$("#thankYouMessage").css("display", "block");
});
Example2 using JQuery:
$(document).ready(function() {
$(".submit").click(function() {
$("#subButton").hide();
$("#thankYouMessage").css("display", "block");
return false;
});
});

jQuery hide form on submit?

I have a form setup where a user can register, and on submittal, a PHP script runs which validates the user, and once that is done, it echoes a messagebox which jQuery quickly hides and then fades in over the course of 1 second. What I now want to do is to be able to hide that form on submittal, and I thought this might do it:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('div.mainsuccess,div.mainerror').hide(0).fadeIn(1000);
$('form.register').submit(function() {
$(this).hide(1000);
});
});
Where div.mainsuccess is the success message, and form.register is the form (with a class of register). Now the first line works, which tells me the script is being called, but the form is not being hidden at all. I'm doing something stupid here, but I cannot figure out what?
I've tried to look through the jQuery API documentation for submit(), but I cannot understand what is being said. Thanks.

I think the reason it may not work is because the form is submitting it's data and waiting for page to refresh... which means, it will stop all of it's javascript stuff coz it's pointless ... I could be wrong but hey, your hide would take 1 second to hide but your page could reload quicker.
$(document).ready(function() {
$('div.mainsuccess,div.mainerror').hide(0).fadeIn(1000);
$('form.register').submit(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();// will stop the form being submited...
$(this).hide(1000);
// do ajax here...
return false;
});
});
Updated
here is a list of tutorials
http://viralpatel.net/blogs/2009/04/jquery-ajax-tutorial-example-ajax-jquery-development.html
http://www.devirtuoso.com/2009/07/beginners-guide-to-using-ajax-with-jquery/
http://www.sitepoint.com/ajax-jquery/
Videos ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CMTQtnZ0G0

Try this:
$("form").submit(function(e){
e.preventDefault();
$(this).hide(1000);
});

You'd want to incorporate an ajax call (I'm taking post) to call the php instead of reloading the page
$('form.register').submit(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
url = $(this).attr('action');
$.post(url,$(this).serialize(), function(data) {
alert('success');
// data will return source code of the URL so you can grab that data and put it somewhere on the script like so.
$('#result').html($(data).find('form'));//form can be replaced with anything
// #result is the id of an element you wish to return the info to
});
$(this).hide(1000);
});
And you'd be done.
More info here

Well, seems that the form refreshes after submission, so it is still there.
I suggest using something like jQuery form: http://jquery.malsup.com/form/
Read up on it and you will find how to use it, and when it is submitted, it won't refresh, and using hide() you will be able to hide it.
N.B you will need jQuery referenced in your code to use jQuery form.
Enjoy.

database query via javascript & servlet

I am trying to do a simple query for info from a database through an html page. I've got all the backend stuff working fine, but I'm having trouble on the client side. I currently have a form where the user submits their ID# to get some info on their case.
But with my current setup, it returns an entirely new page and I just want to read in a text string, process it and update the content on the current html page without opening up a new one and replacing the old one. How can this be done?
Here's my code so far:
function showInfo() { } // I want to make the request here instead
<form name="register" action="http://localhost:8080/testapp/authenticate" method="get">
<p><label for="badge">ID #:</label>
<input id="badge" name="ID" type="text" pattern="[0-9]{6}"
placeholder="xxxxxx">
<button id="checkButton" type="submit" onClick="showInfo()">Enter</button>
</p>
</form>

My guess is that you're actually submitting the form, which is posting back to the server. What you will want to do is cancel the form from submitting and submit it using AJAX (which is what I believe you want?).
To do so, your showInfo() function should do one of these three things (I can never remember which one)
return false;
cancel the event, something like e.preventDefault()
stop the propagation, something like e.stopPropagation()
Once you've successfully prevented the form from hard-submitting, you can then do what you'd like by submitting your data via AJAX and manipulating your response however you'd like.

1st - Jason is absolutely right that what you want for this situation is AJAX, below is an example in motion.
2nd - You should be using a Javascript library such as jQuery, which might look intimidating (as it did for me at first), but it is really easy and completely worth the small effort to get it going.
3rd - With jQuery, your application tidbits should look something like this, using the example you provided:
HTML -
<p>
<label for="badge">ID #:</label>
<input id="badge" name="ID" type="text" pattern="[0-9]{6}"
placeholder="xxxxxx">
// Please note that I removed the onClick section from the line below.
<button id="checkButton" type="button">Enter</button>
</p>
JQUERY -
// The default function you described to take information and display it.
function showInfo(data) {
// Insert your function here, probably using JSON as the Content Type
}
// This is the key AJAX function, using jQuery, that takes your info and gets a
// response from the server side, the sends it to the function above in order for it
// to be displayed on the page.
function processIdInfoCheck() {
$.ajax({
type: 'post',
url: '/http://localhost:8080/testapp/authenticate',
data: {
'id': $('#badge').val();
},
dataType: 'json',
success: displayIdInfoReturn,
error: function () {
alert("There was an error processing your request, please try again");
}
});
}
// When the page loads, the code below will trigger, and bind your button click
// with the action you want, namely triggering the AJAX function above
(function ($) {
$('#checkButton').bind('click', processIdInfoCheck);
})(jQuery);
Just remember, AJAX takes some effort to get the desired effect, but when you look at page load times, request numbers, etc... It is totally worth it. Please let me know if this was helpful and if you need any specifics.

Ajax and Fancybox form redirecting

So I had the bright idea to use fancybox and jquery to send a form via AJAX. The form actually displays quite nicely. However when the form is submitted, the user is always redirected. I've tried to mitigate this several ways but to no avail. It's been a while since I've used jQuery so it may be something stupid. I can't for the life of me figure out what's going wrong.
Here's the code, to the best of my knowledge it should prevent the form from redirecting:
$('#fancybox-wrap #email_form').bind('submit', function(){
$.fancybox.showActivity();
var form_data = $(this).serialize();
form_data[crap] = 'Crap';
$.ajax({
type : "POST",
cache : false,
url : "<?php echo site_url('inventory/email'); ?>",
data : form_data,
success: function(data) {
$.fancybox(data);
}
});
return false;
});
If there are any better ways to do this I would glad to hear them. Thanks!

(This answer stems from the discussion between myself and MackDaddy in the comments of the question.)
The problem here is not that Ajax or Fancybox has interrupted the intended flow of the form (stopping it from following its action), but rather simply that:
The selector is wrong, since div#email_form is not the form itself, but rather its container, and therefore cannot take a submit event; and
Fancybox appears to remove the div and replace it elsewhere inside its own containers. Therefore, the use of the bind function does not work as expected, since the element it attaches to is removed from the DOM and a duplicate is inserted. The live function should be used instead, since it will attach the event not only to the first #email_form, but all subsequent ones that are inserted into the DOM.

Have you tried action="javascript: void(0)" in your form?