creating a html link as a button

[Ling Chung]

Hello all, how can i generate a link which is resembled by a button. So the link refers to an action, but i want the link to be a button. Or can i just use the html:submit ??

[Nikhil Menon]

Hi Ling Chung,

Won't this solve your problem?

 <html:form action="/actionName" >
       <html:submit/>
</html:form> 

If not can you make it clear?

Nikhil Kanjulli Menon

[Ling Chung]

problem is i generate a link using a href and i want to display this as a button.

So i have :

  
<a href="shoppingCart.do?<%=ActionConstants.PARAM_METHOD%>=<bean:message key="cart.update.cart" />">
<bean:message key="button.update" />
</a>

So this is the way i generate a link. How can i make this to generate a button. I want to go an action with a single parameter using an submit button.

[Marc Peabody]

It looks like you are using one of the DispatchActions. I think the DispatchActions work great for links but are not very versatile for buttons.

I came up with a solution for this (a new DispatchAction actually) and I've been tweaking it in my spare time for the past week. I will post it Friday evening (I don't have the most recent version on this machine) at www.marcpeabody.com. Sorry if this is not soon enough for what you need.

Another option to consider is to make .gifs that look like buttons. That way you keep the anchor href but change the look from text to button-like.

Best of luck!

[Nathan Hook]

can't you just go...

<form action="<YOUR LINK HERE>">
  <input type="submit" value="<YOUR VALUE HERE>">
</form>

I'm confused.

Nate

[Marc Peabody]

Nate,

That's a good idea. Never thought of having a form for each button before. So how do you pass along the information of which item to add to the shopping cart? Hidden parameters?

ps - Multiple forms on a single page make me nervous.

[Nathan Hook]

Well, each form would need to have its own parameters.

We use the above example for all our cancel buttons. We don't do any behavior for our cancels except to redirect the user to a different page.

Best of Luck,

Nate