JavaScript onSubmit Handler : alexking.org

I think I’ve actually read this before, but I had forgotten it (for which I paid 30-45 minutes of debugging hell – why won’t you work? Stoopid JavaScript!).

If you are submitting a form using JavaScript (document.formName.submit(); ), with an onclick event, the onsubmit handler on the form (say a validation script) does not fire. You need to call the script you want to run onsubmit in the onclick event.

<script language="JavaScript">

function validate() {

  return true;

}

</script>

<form name="foo"

      action="index.php"

      method="post"

      onsubmit=" if (!validate()) { alert('whoops!'); return false; }">

  <input type="text" name="bar" />

  <span onclick="if (!validate()) { alert('whoops!'); return false; }

                 else { document.foo.submit(); }">

    Submit

  </span>

</form>