javascript onsubmit not working

Stoffl picture Stoffl · Mar 22, 2014 · Viewed 54k times · Source

I am trying to make a javascript function work on submitting the form, the function doesnt seem to run. Can anyone help?

<html>
<head>
    <script>
        function upload(){
                alert("I am an alert box!");
        }
     </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" onsubmit="return upload();">
    <input type="file" name="file">
    <input type="submit" name="upload" value="Datei hochladen">
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Answer

adeneo picture adeneo · Mar 22, 2014

When attaching the event handler to the form element, the scope of the event handler is the form and not the window

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" onsubmit="return upload(this);">

<script>
    function upload(scope) {
        console.log(scope); // The passed scope from the event handler is
    }                       // the form, and not window
</script>

As input elements inside a form are attached as properties to the form object, where the name is the key, calling upload() in the event handler, where the scope is the form, would equal calling form.upload(), but the form already has an element with that name so form.upload is the upload button, not the upload() function in the global scope.

To solve it, either rename the function or the element

<html>
<head>
    <script>
        function upload(){
                alert("I am an alert box!");
        }
     </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" onsubmit="return upload();">
    <input type="file" name="file">
    <input type="submit" name="upload2" value="Datei hochladen">
    </form>
</body>
</html>

FIDDLE