change from input tag to button

[Jack Tauson]

I have the following form which works fine:

<html:form action="userCreate.html">
   <input type="hidden" name="meth" value="create" />
   <table class="detail">
      <tr>
         <th class="label"><label class="requiredFieldLabel"> 
            Company Number </label>
         </th>
         <td>
            <html:text property="cn" size="15" />
         </td>
      </tr>
      <c:if test="${CompanyClientName != null}">
         <tr>
            <th class="label"><label> Lead Company </label></th>
            <td>
               <bean:write name="leadCompanyName" />
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <th class="label"><label> Client Name </label></th>
            <td>
               <bean:write name="CompanyClientName" />
            </td>
         </tr>
      </c:if>
      <tr>
         <td><br /></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
         <td><br /></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
         <td></td>
         <td><input type="submit" onclick="this.form.meth.value='create'"
            value="Create Company" /></td>
         </tr>
   </table>
</html:form>
<script type="text/javascript">
   /* function createCompany(){
   
   	alert("Alert hiiii");
   
   	this.form.meth.value ='create';
   
   	
   
   } */
 </script>

I want to do some things inside a createCompany() function and if something is true, then only go ahead with the form submission. So I have tried changing it to a button tag linke this:

<td><button onclick="createCompany(); return false">Scan</button></td>

and after uncommenting the createCompany() function, I can see the form is submitted but I do see an error in console "Uncaught TypeError: this.form is undefined"

Am i doing anything wrong above?

[Bear Bibeault]

What are you expecting this to be evaluating to? (Hint: probably not what you think.)

The likely quickest path to find the input element you want to change is to assign an id and use document.getElementById.

You also probably don't want to do this in a click handler, but rather in a handler for the form's submit event.

[Jack Tauson]

Bear Bibeault wrote:What are you expecting this to be evaluating to? (Hint: probably not what you think.)

The likely quickest path to find the input element you want to change is to assign an id and use document.getElementById.

You also probably don't want to do this in a click handler, but rather in a handler for the form's submit event.

Could you maybe explain by providing a code example? Thanks!

[Tim Holloway]

This is not just a JSP thing, but the best way to validate data client-side before submitting isn't to use onclick(), it's to use onsubmit(). The code that onsubmit executes returns true or false depending on whether you want the submit to proceed or be aborted.

[Jack Tauson]

Tim Holloway wrote:This is not just a JSP thing, but the best way to validate data client-side before submitting isn't to use onclick(), it's to use onsubmit(). The code that onsubmit executes returns true or false depending on whether you want the submit to proceed or be aborted.

I believe you are referring to using onsubmit() like this ?

<html:form action="userCreate.html" onsubmit="return someFunction(this)">

[Tim Holloway]

In form, yes. Of course, the action's actual value should be something like "${context}/userCreate", and I prefer to add a final ";" on the JavaScript for consistency's sake (it's not required, of course). I used "${context}" as a stand-in for the full URL path (relative URLs can bite you). Don't remember the exact method for JSPs at the moment. Straight HTML can use the docbase tag to help.