Posting data through hyperlinks

Question

I want to post ($_GET as well as $_POST) data by clicking on links (enclosed with <a>) and not the regular form 'submit' button. preferred language : PHP

I have seen this in a lot of todays websites, where forms are submitted by clicking on buttons looking like hyperlinks. so was wondering how it could be done.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Beware posting data by clicking on links! Spiders may follow this links and change data.

You probably want something like:

<a href="#" onclick="form.Submit();">submit</a>

Answer 2

You can make use of Javascript to submit the form.

<a href='document.myform.submit()'>Submit Button</a>

Answer 3

You could do something like:

<a href='myform.php?name=Bob&surname=Terrier'>Click here</a>

That will submit name and surname as GET variables to the form.

Beware any form that modifies data though, as search engines and spiders will traverse links where they don't traverse forms.

Answer 4

Forms are designed to be submitted with buttons. You can use JavaScript to make a link submit it, but this will break when JS is not available. Even if JavaScript is available, using a link will be using a control which won't show up when a screen reader is in "Forms Mode", leaving screen reader users without any obvious way to submit the form.

CSS is a safer alternative (see http://tom.me.uk/scripting/submit.html).

Answer 5

This post on Ajaxian might help. It links to a pretty in depth blog post that shows you how to apply css to buttons so that they look like links.

The advantage here over using a proper link is the "fake link" really is a button, so it behaves exactly like a button, only it looks like a link. Spiders won't follow it, screen readers will treat it differently, it's a more "correct" thing to do in terms of launching a http post.

Answer 6

As seen from the other answers, you have to use JavaScript if you want to submit user data from a form with a link. That means you exclude anyone with JavaScript turned off, unavailable, or incompatible with your code. On the other hand, you could try to style a button with CSS to make it look like a link.

Answer 7

Hey Buddy, judging by

preferred language : PHP

I guess, that you're new to the world of web programming.

And

clicking on buttons looking like hyperlinks

If you want to make buttons look like hyperlinks, you may just change the cursor from pointer to hand. Unless you look at the source code, your button is like a hyperlink!

<input type="submit" src="someimage" style="cursor: hand;" />

This will be sufficient if you want to make it look like a hyperlink.