ASP.NET MVC - How to prevent double click submit with jquery.validate.unobtrusive lib?

Question

I need to avoid the double click submitting behavior. I'm using the client validation with the unobtrusive library. I have the following code for avoiding the double clic:

jQuery.fn.preventDoubleSubmit = function () {
         var alreadySubmitted = false;
         return jQuery(this).submit(function () {

             if (alreadySubmitted)
                 return false;
             else {
                 alreadySubmitted = true;
             }
         });
     };

     jQuery('form').preventDoubleSubmit();

Unfortunately, if my form has some validable fields (for example, a required field), the code above is still being fired, hence, even if I correct any mistakes on the form, I won't be able to submit it again.

How can I fire the double click code after the validation has been succesfully done?

Giannagianni

Answer 1

I solved it with the following code:

var tryNumber = 0;
 jQuery('input[type=submit]').click(function (event) {
     var self = $(this);

     if (self.closest('form').valid()) {
         if (tryNumber > 0) {
             tryNumber++;
             alert('Your form has been already submited. wait please');
             return false;
         }
         else {
             tryNumber++;
         }
     };
 });

NOTE: You can also replace the:

return false;

line, for:

self.attr('disabled', true);

BUT, if you use the name of your submit buttons on your controller for extra logic, they will be sent as null. (you can use an additional hidden field to charge them before submitting)

that's it, hope it helps

Rodrigo

EDIT: Thanks to these posts: jquery newbie: combine validate with hidding submit button

Giannagianni

If you keep on incrementing forever, then tryNumber will eventually overflow. No real reason to count the tries there, just use a "submitted = 0" and change it to 1 – Michaeline

Answer 2

You can also use the JQuery One event.

I have found that I could get past most guards against double-clicks by double-clicking fast. Using the one event is the only true way to make sure the event is only fired once. I don't think this technique will work "out of the box" with an input type=submit tag. Instead, you can simply use an input type=button or JQueryUI's .button().

$("#submitButton").one("click", function(event) {
   $('#theForm').submit();
});

If you need to re-wire the event on a validation error (or other circumstance), I recommend that you create a function for the event handler. The function isn't necessary in this example because all the event handler does is submit the form, but in more complicated scenarios you may want to avoid repeating yourself.

function submitClick(event) {
   $('#theForm').submit();
}

$("#submitButton").one('click', function(event) {
   submitClick(event);
});

// This handler will re-wire the event when the form is invalid.
$('#theForm').submit(function(event) {
   if (!$(this).valid()) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $('#submitButton').one('click', function(event) { submitClick(event); });
   }
});

You could obviously add the disabling code here if you wanted to give feedback to the user that the button doesn't work anymore. One great side-effect of using the One event is that you don't actually have to make the button disabled, you can use a style of your own.

function submitClick(event) {
   $('#submitButton').addClass('disabledButton');
   $('#theForm').submit();
}

$("#submitButton").one('click', function(event) {
   submitClick(event);
});

// This handler will re-wire the event when the form is invalid.
$('#theForm').submit(function(event) {
   if (!$(this).valid()) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $('#submitButton').one('click', function(event) { submitClick(event); });
      $('#submitButton').removeClass('disabledButton');
   }
});

JQuery One Event: http://api.jquery.com/one/

Victuals

Great! thanks for the info, the behavior would be complete with this – Giannagianni

I try the javascript code but I get a error in $(this).valid() function. It says that there is no valid() function for the object $(this). – Apprehensive

Answer 3

Why not just use:

function disableButtons() {
    var form = $(this);
    var btns = $("input:submit", form);

    if (!form.valid()) {
        // allow user to correct validation errors and re-submit
        btns.removeAttr("disabled");
    } else {
        btns.attr("disabled", "disabled");
    }
}

to disable your buttons and activate it using:

$("form").bind("submit", disableButtons);

Brattishing

This is the most Generic one, it's working Perfectly .. Thank you – Cirro

Answer 4

Based on Ryan P's popular answer I created the following generic solution that also works with my ajax form.

decorate your custom submit button with the following class:

<button type="button" class="one-click-submit-button">Submit</button>

Add the following to your javascript file:

function OneClickSubmitButton() {
    $('.one-click-submit-button').each(function () {
        var $theButton = $(this);
        var $theForm = $theButton.closest('form');

        //hide the button and submit the form
        function tieButtonToForm() {
            $theButton.one('click', function () {
                $theButton.hide();
                $theForm.submit();
            });
        }

        tieButtonToForm();

        // This handler will re-wire the event when the form is invalid.
        $theForm.submit(function (event) {
            if (!$(this).valid()) {
                $theButton.show();
                event.preventDefault();
                tieButtonToForm();
            }
        });
    });
}

OneClickSubmitButton();

since this is an ajax form we want to reload the handlers if we fail server validation.

function MyForm_OnSuccess() {
    if (true if your form passed validation logic) {
        //do something since your form submitted successfully
    } else { //validation failed on server
        OneClickSubmitButton(); //reinitialize the button logic
    }
}

Obviously if you don't have ajax forms you can omit the whole OneClickSubmitButton function business and run $('.one-click-submit-button').each(... directly.

Choriocarcinoma

Is $theForm.submit() really needed? The form will submit anyway. I removed it in my answer and it seems to work just fine. – Sharynshashlik

he's using type="button" with a custom submit button, not an input with "submit" type - that is probably preferred – Michaeline

Answer 5

I have a form that uses MVC3 unobtrusive validation, and a viewmodel with a [RemoteAttribute]. It looks to me like the form's submit event only fires after all validation has passed. I'm currently using this, and it seems to work:

<input type="submit" value="Submit the Form" 
    data-app-disable-on-submit="true" />

$('form').live('submit', function() {
    $(this).find('input[type="submit"][data-app-disable-on-submit="true"]')
                .attr('disabled', 'disabled');
})

;

I set breakpoints on both the remote attribute validation action method and the HttpPost action method. Clicking the submit button the first time hits the breakpoint on the validation action method. At this point, the button is still enabled. I can click it multiple times, and after resuming the validation method, the HttpPost is hit only once. When the HttpPost is hit, the submit button is disabled.

Update

Right you are Alex. So an updated version of the above would look like this:

$('form').on('submit', function() {
    $(this).find('input[type="submit"][data-app-disable-on-submit="true"]')
                .attr('disabled', 'disabled');
})

Fiord

.live is deprecated, replaced by .on or .submit in this particular case. In any case it didn't work for me. – Choriocarcinoma

Answer 6

 $('form').submit(function () {
 $('input[type="submit"]', this).attr('disabled', 'disabled');
   });

Jonson

This solution worked for me. With today's accessibility standards, you might also consider including .attr("aria-busy", "true"); – Affective

Answer 7

I use a different approach to this. Not wiring to the click event of the button, but to the submit event of the form. Works like a charm to prevent multiple simultaneous submits of forms.

function initFormsToPreventSimultaneousSubmits(selector) {
    if (!selector) {
        selector = 'form'; // No selector supplied, apply to all forms on the page
    }

    // Make sure all forms that conform to selector are marked as not submitting
    $(selector).each(function()
    {
        var $form = $(this);
        $form.data('submitting', false);
    });

    // Attach to submit event of all forms that conform to selector
    $(selector).off('submit').on('submit', function (e) {
        var $form = $(this);

        if (!$form.valid || $form.valid()) { // Make sure to only process when the form is valid or jquery validation is not used
            if ($form.data('submitting')) {
                // form is already submitting. Classic case of double click on one of the submit buttons of the form. Stop the submit
                e.preventDefault();
                return false;
            } else {
                // All ok, mark the form as submitting and let the form perform the submit
                $form.data('submitting', true);
                return true;
            }
        }
    });
}

On document ready i call initFormsToPreventSimultaneousSubmits() to init all forms on the page.

Only thing to remember is that when u use a ajax form post is to call the initFormsToPreventSimultaneousSubmits('#formId') on the OnComplete event of the AjaxOptions settings. Because otherwise the form will still be marked as submitting when its done. When a 'normal' form post is used this is not an issue.

Ap

Answer 8

Extends answers by Alex and Ryan P to accounts for situations where jQuery Validation might be missing and where multiple submit buttons exist in a single form.

oneClickSubmitButton = function () {
    $('input[type=submit], button[type=submit], input[type=image]').each(function () {
        var $theButton = $(this);
        var $theForm = $theButton.closest('form');

        //hide the button and submit the form
        function tieButtonToForm() {
            $theButton.one('click', function () {
                $theButton.addClass('ui-state-disabled');
            });
        }

        tieButtonToForm();

        $theForm.submit(function (event) {
            // Only proceed for the clicked button
            if (!$theButton.hasClass("ui-state-disabled"))
                return;

            // If jQuery Validation is not present or the form is valid, the form is valid
            if (!$theForm.valid || $theForm.valid())
                return;

            // Re-wire the event
            $theButton.removeClass('ui-state-disabled');
            event.preventDefault();
            tieButtonToForm();
        });
    });
};

Sharynshashlik

Answer 9

I was able to fix a similar issue with a couple of lines of code. I prefer this if you don't want to "alert" to user that they double clicked and just silently ignore the second click.

I just made a global javascript variable that I toggled when my function was executing during a critical section. This kept subsequent function calls from re-executing the same section.

 var criticalSection = false;

 SomeOnClickEventFired = function () {
      if (!criticalSection)
      {
            criticalSection = true;
            //Ajax Time
            criticalSection = false;
      }
 }

Ephraimite