Simple ajax form using javascript no jQuery

Question

I'm working with a form for which the mark-up I can't change & can't use jQuery. Currently the form post the results to a new window. Is it possible to change this to an ajax form so that the results displays on submit instead without altering any mark-up? Pulling the results (mark-up) from the results page back to the form page.

Here is the mark-up for the form.

<form class="form-poll" id="poll-1225962377536" action="/cs/Satellite" target="_blank">
<div class="form-item">
    <fieldset class="form-radio-group">
        <legend><span class="legend-text">What mobile phone is the best?</span></legend>
                <div class="form-radio-item">
                    <input type="radio" class="radio" value="1225962377541" name="option" id="form-item-1225962377541">
                    <label class="radio" for="form-item-1225962377541">
                        <span class="label-text">iPhone</span>
                    </label>
                </div><!-- // .form-radio-item -->
                <div class="form-radio-item">
                    <input type="radio" class="radio" value="1225962377542" name="option" id="form-item-1225962377542">
                    <label class="radio" for="form-item-1225962377542">
                        <span class="label-text">Android</span>
                    </label>
                </div><!-- // .form-radio-item -->
                <div class="form-radio-item">
                    <input type="radio" class="radio" value="1225962377543" name="option" id="form-item-1225962377543">
                    <label class="radio" for="form-item-1225962377543">
                        <span class="label-text">Symbian</span>
                    </label>
                </div><!-- // .form-radio-item -->
                <div class="form-radio-item">
                    <input type="radio" class="radio" value="1225962377544" name="option" id="form-item-1225962377544">
                    <label class="radio" for="form-item-1225962377544">
                        <span class="label-text">Other</span>
                    </label>
                </div><!-- // .form-radio-item -->
    </fieldset>
</div><!-- // .form-item -->
<div class="form-item form-item-submit">
    <button class="button-submit" type="submit"><span>Vote now</span></button>
</div><!-- // .form-item -->
<input type="hidden" name="c" value="News_Poll">
<input type="hidden" class="pollId" name="cid" value="1225962377536">
<input type="hidden" name="pagename" value="Foundation/News_Poll/saveResult">
<input type="hidden" name="site" value="themouth">

Any tips/tutorial is much appreciated. :)

Answer 1

The following is a far more elegant solution of the other answer, more fit for modern browsers.

My reasoning is that if you need support for older browser you already most likely use a library like jQuery, and thus making this question pointless.

/**
 * Takes a form node and sends it over AJAX.
 * @param {HTMLFormElement} form - Form node to send
 * @param {function} callback - Function to handle onload. 
 *                              this variable will be bound correctly.
 */

function ajaxPost (form, callback) {
    var url = form.action,
        xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

    //This is a bit tricky, [].fn.call(form.elements, ...) allows us to call .fn
    //on the form's elements, even though it's not an array. Effectively
    //Filtering all of the fields on the form
    var params = [].filter.call(form.elements, function(el) {
        //Allow only elements that don't have the 'checked' property
        //Or those who have it, and it's checked for them.
        return typeof(el.checked) === 'undefined' || el.checked;
        //Practically, filter out checkboxes/radios which aren't checekd.
    })
    .filter(function(el) { return !!el.name; }) //Nameless elements die.
    .filter(function(el) { return el.disabled; }) //Disabled elements die.
    .map(function(el) {
        //Map each field into a name=value string, make sure to properly escape!
        return encodeURIComponent(el.name) + '=' + encodeURIComponent(el.value);
    }).join('&'); //Then join all the strings by &

    xhr.open("POST", url);
    // Changed from application/x-form-urlencoded to application/x-form-urlencoded
    xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

    //.bind ensures that this inside of the function is the XHR object.
    xhr.onload = callback.bind(xhr); 

    //All preperations are clear, send the request!
    xhr.send(params);
}

The above is supported in all major browsers, and IE9 and above.