IE doesn't return value of submit button?

[Allen Williams]

Here is a form (it is the output of a jsp, but that's irrelevant at this point). This was cut and pasted directly from Internet Explorer's View->Document Source menu:

 <form method="post" action="/infoisland/members/servlet/TribeMgr">
        <fieldset>
            <legend>New Tribe             </legend>
            <label for="trbname">Tribe Name (32 chars):</label>
            <input type="text" name="trbname" class="frmtxt" value="Title
goes here" />
            <br class=fieldalign />
 
            <label for="trbdesc">Tribe Description</label>
            <textarea rows="5" cols="32" name="trbdesc"
                      class="leftlabeled">Description goes here</textarea>
            <br class=fieldalign />
            <div class="break">
            <p><input type="checkbox" name="mod" class="check"   />
                Moderated Tribe (all messages screened by the Tribal
Chief)</p><br class="fieldalign">
            <p><input type="radio" name="access" value="public"  >Anyone can
join this tribe</p>
            <p><input type="radio" name="access" value="protected" checked>A
member must invite someone to join</p>
            <p><input type="radio" name="access" value="private"  >The chief
(currently you) must invite
                someone to join (a member can request this of the chief)</p>
            </div>
        </fieldset>
 
        [B]<button type="submit" name="trbbtn" value="trbnew"
        class="centeredbutton">New Tribe</button>[/B]
        <br class="fieldalign" />
    </form>

Note at the end where I've bolded the button. Here is a fragment of the TrbMgr servlet this form calls:

        String target= "";
        String todo= rq.getParameter("trbbtn");
 
        Log.write("\n**********\nTribeMgr: todo= " + todo);

And, here is what the log prints out:

**********
TribeMgr: todo= New Tribe

In other words, IE is sending the text on the button and not the "value='btnvalue'" from the <input> tag.

Mozilla works just fine, and I don't think I've ever seen this. Has anyone else? Is this a quirk in IE I don't know about? I did a google search and haven't found anything so far.

TIA

[Bear Bibeault]

You've found yet another instance where Internet Explorer does not follow the HTML 4 Specification: BUTTON specification.

Both IE6 and IE7 exhibit this behavior with your sample code.

Sigh.
[ March 27, 2007: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]