Obtain form name or ID inside function

[solepixel]

If I have a function called submitAction() with no variables, can I get any information from the form, like the ID or name of the form if the function is in the "onsubmit" event?

Secondly, if I have a function submitAction() and attach it to the onClick event of a link, can I obtain information about that link like the ID or anything, without actually putting variables into the function reference? (like submitAction('var1','var2'))

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Yes, and yes, although don't forget you could pass "this" through as a parameter should you need to have it generic enough to work across many placements of the code.

Hope this helps,
Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

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[solepixel]

well, i the issue is i'm actually attaching the onsubmit event to forms on my page. the code kinda works like this

onload > attachSubmit(the_form);

function attachSubmit(form_ref){
    if(window.addEventListener){
        form_ref.onsubmit = submitAction;
    } else {
        form_attach.attachEvent('onsubmit',submitAction)
    }
}

And if i try:

function attachSubmit(form_ref){
    if(window.addEventListener){
        form_ref.onsubmit = submitAction(form_ref);
    } else {
        form_ref.attachEvent('onsubmit',submitAction(form_ref))
    }
}

For some reason it executes the function submitAction() right then.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You should use the first syntax, I'd say - although you're using "form_ref" in the upper branch and "form_attach" in the lower - is this right? Is "form_attach" defined anywhere?

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

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[/tt]

 

[solepixel]

sorry, just a mere example error, they're supposed to both be the same. So, if I use the first example, how do i found out what form is being submitted without any arguments?

 

[solepixel]

Ok, I figured out the form part (this.form and this.name) when used with the onSubmit action. What about the Link that sits inside a form. It must be this.[something].

BTW, I tried this code

for(items in this){
    alert(this[items]);
}

and I got a lot of seemingly useful information, however I couldn't figure out what "index" or reference to use to get the value that I saw in my alert. Thanks for the help!

 

[solepixel]

Ok, i actually thought I figured it out, but I really didn't. this.id and/or this.name don't work in IE. So it got me thinking. I'd like to get the document.form[index] of this form. That's going to be the best way in case the form doesn't have an ID or a name (for some strange reason)...

So can you help me with this?

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You'd have to inspect the event data (which is passed as an argument in non-IE browsers, and is available as a global variable, "event" in IE).

However, you might find it easier to pass "this" through given the syntax in your first function:

<form name="form1" onsubmit="doSomething(this);">

...

<form name="form2" onsubmit="doSomething(this);">

...

function doSomething(whichForm) {
   // "whichForm" contains a ref to the form that called this function
}

Dan




Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[solepixel]

I did figure out a way to pass a variable to my onSubmit function by doing this:

if(window.addEventListener){
    form_attach.onsubmit = function(){ return submitAction(form_ref); };
} else { // IE
    form_attach.attachEvent('onsubmit', function(){ return submitAction(form_ref); });
}

But the issue is I have to 2 submitActions, 1. submitAction and 2. submitLinkAction. I'm trying to combine these into one but to do that, i have to be able to extract the name/id/index of the form from inside the function without any variables. I also will need to be able to find out the tagName of the element that clicked. Here's the jist of what i would like to do:

function submitAction(){
    //run validator
    process = validator; //returns true/false
    //reference the form by index
    document.forms[this_form]; //just in case there's no form ID or name.
    //get the tagName of the element that processed this function
    tag = this.tagName or window.event.srcElement.tagName

    if (tag == "A" OR (tag == "INPUT" && this.type != "submit")) AND process)
    document.forms[this_form].submit()
    else return false;
    
    return process; // this will return the value if it's an actual submit button.
}

I know it's not real code, but it's the best way I know to explain it.

 

[RestonDeveloper]

use anonymous functions, that will prevent from firing the functions you want to assign to the onsubmit event.