Can I make a <button> not submit a form?

Question

I've got a form, with 2 buttons

<a href="index.html"><button>Cancel changes</button></a>

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

I use jQuery UI's button on them too, simply like this

$('button').button();

However, the first button also submits the form. I would have thought that if it didn't have the type="submit", it wouldn't.

Obviously I could do this

$('button[type!=submit]').click(function(event) { event.stopPropagation(); });

But is there a way I can stop that back button from submitting the form without JavaScript intervention?

To be honest, I used a button only so I could style it with jQuery UI. I tried calling button() on the link and it didn't work as expected (looked quite ugly!).

Pamphylia

Possible duplicate of HTML button to NOT submit form – Psychochemical

use <button type="button"> for the one that doesn't submit the form and <input type="submit"> for the other one. Then catch it with jquery $('#formID').submit(function(e){}); – Ameeameer

Answer 1

The default value for the type attribute of button elements is "submit". Set it to type="button" to produce a button that doesn't submit the form.

<button type="button">Submit</button>

In the words of the HTML Standard: "Does nothing."

Fluency

Everyone: Please read html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/syntax.html#unquoted – Fluency

also, an <input type=text> will submit the form when you press enter if there is a button with the attribute type="submit" (or empty) in the same form – Jaquith

Thank you so much! I've been stuck on this for a while, when the answer itself was simple. Simple is key! – Variegate

Answer 2

The button element has a default type of submit.

You can make it do nothing by setting a type of button:

<button type="button">Cancel changes</button>

Choler

@B.ClayShannon Not really. You could use server-side code to return the same page when the button is clicked, but it'll still reload the page. Ultimately the button is part of the document and so the only ways to tell the browser how you want it to act are HTML and JavaScript. – Choler

Answer 3

Just use good old HTML:

<input type="button" value="Submit" />

Wrap it as the subject of a link, if you so desire:

<a href="http://somewhere.com"><input type="button" value="Submit" /></a>

Or if you decide you want javascript to provide some other functionality:

<input type="button" value="Cancel" onclick="javascript: someFunctionThatCouldIncludeRedirect();"/>

Amabelle

Using a standard button control with proper type attribute is "good old html," and creates much simpler markup. – Leckie

It's clearly not simpler if in some browsers it has a default type of submit and in others it has a default type of button. Heck, even just having the default type of submit complicates things more than is necessary IMO. There should be markup that easily provides a button that does nothing. And there is: <input type="button" /> – Amabelle

+1 I've used this exact technique lots of times, and it has always worked well for me. One variant is if you need to cancel the postback event for a server-side button based upon some client-side calculation, you can include window.event.returnValue = false; in your code that executes in the client-side onclick event for your button... that is, if using a custom validator control doesn't cut the mustard for you :) – Anodyne

@JGB146: Just because not all browsers default to the same value doesn't mean they won't respect the correct type if it's set manually (as is suggested by jleedev. Not to mention the questions specifically asks for a way to do it without JavaScript while your answer doesn't take that into account. – Leckie

@R0MANARMY: I gave multiple options in my answer. The first one involves no JavaScript. Is there really a significant difference between <input type="button" /> and <button type="button" /> in your eyes? To me, the only difference is that <input /> provides more functionality should you wish to employ it. – Amabelle

And to clarify, by "more functionality" I mean by supporting things like specifying size, alt text, disabling, etc. I honestly don't know if these things are in <button /> because I do not use it. <a href='w3schools.com/tags/tag_button.asp'>W3Schools</a> does not list them for button, but obviously they do <a href='w3schools.com/tags/tag_input.asp'>for input</a> – Amabelle

button does have more support for styling. It's also easier to select in IE6, i.e. button { } against input[type=submit] { } for single submit buttons. I guess that is IE's fault though. – Pamphylia

@JGB146: Button is a container in HTML. That allows you to place things like images or tables (not sure why you'd do this, but you could) etc while input doesn't support that. There is a difference between the two, and each one has their appropriate use case. – Leckie

@R0MANARMY: Thanks for noting this. As I said, I haven't used button so I didn't realize this difference. I would be interested in hearing your take on when only one of them is appropriate though. In fact, I'll start a question about that. After all, there is <input type="image" /> too, for the situations where you want an image as your button ;) – Amabelle

The question already exists: #1399455 – Amabelle

@JGB146: Unfortunately I don't really have a take on it, I knew there's a difference in that buttons are containers, and in what value they submit is not standard across all browsers. – Leckie

Regarding the 2nd example: wrapping input in a is invalid HTML! You can't and shouldn't nest interactive controls. – Mcdonald

Answer 4

Yes, you can make a button not submit a form by adding an attribute of type of value button:

<button type="button"><button>

Gut

Answer 5

<form onsubmit="return false;">
   ...
</form>

Chisolm

Your answer disables all traditional ways to submit the form, not just one button. OP's question was more in regard of disabling only specific buttons, but keeping the form submittable. – Soni

If you have 5 buttons, and you want to submit only when click on one of them, this will not work. This will make the form do nothing when press any of the buttons – Whitacre

Answer 6

Honestly, I like the other answers. Easy and no need to get into JS. But I noticed that you were asking about jQuery. So for the sake of completeness, in jQuery if you return false with the .click() handler, it will negate the default action of the widget.

See here for an example (and more goodies, too). Here's the documentation, too.

in a nutshell, with your sample code, do this:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $('button[type!=submit]').click(function(){
        // code to cancel changes
        return false;
    });
</script>

<a href="index.html"><button>Cancel changes</button></a>
<button type="submit">Submit</button>

As an added benefit, with this, you can get rid of the anchor tag and just use the button.

Boracite

Curiously enough, adding e.preventDefault() does nothing to stop the submission (where it starts with function(e)). – Onomastic

Answer 7

Without setting the type attribute, you could also return false from your OnClick handler, and declare the onclick attribute as onclick="return onBtnClick(event)".

Linnea

Answer 8

  <form class="form-horizontal" method="post">
        <div class="control-group">

            <input type="text" name="subject_code" id="inputEmail" placeholder="Subject Code">
        </div>
        <div class="control-group">
            <input type="text" class="span8" name="title" id="inputPassword" placeholder="Subject Title" required>
        </div>
        <div class="control-group">
            <input type="text" class="span1" name="unit" id="inputPassword" required>
        </div>
            <div class="control-group">
            <label class="control-label" for="inputPassword">Semester</label>
            <div class="controls">
                <select name="semester">
                    <option></option>
                    <option>1st</option>
                    <option>2nd</option>
                </select>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="control-group">
            <label class="control-label" for="inputPassword">Deskripsi</label>
            <div class="controls">
                    <textarea name="description" id="ckeditor_full"></textarea>
 <script>CKEDITOR.replace('ckeditor_full');</script>
            </div>
        </div>



        <div class="control-group">
        <div class="controls">

        <button name="save" type="submit" class="btn btn-info"><i class="icon-save"></i> Simpan</button>
        </div>
        </div>
        </form>

        <?php
        if (isset($_POST['save'])){
        $subject_code = $_POST['subject_code'];
        $title = $_POST['title'];
        $unit = $_POST['unit'];
        $description = $_POST['description'];
        $semester = $_POST['semester'];


        $query = mysql_query("select * from subject where subject_code = '$subject_code' ")or die(mysql_error());
        $count = mysql_num_rows($query);

        if ($count > 0){ ?>
        <script>
        alert('Data Sudah Ada');
        </script>
        <?php
        }else{
        mysql_query("insert into subject (subject_code,subject_title,description,unit,semester) values('$subject_code','$title','$description','$unit','$semester')")or die(mysql_error());


        mysql_query("insert into activity_log (date,username,action) values(NOW(),'$user_username','Add Subject $subject_code')")or die(mysql_error());


        ?>
        <script>
        window.location = "subjects.php";
        </script>
        <?php
        }
        }

        ?>

Middleclass