HTMLFormElement.requestSubmit()

The HTMLFormElement method requestSubmit() requests that the form be submitted using a specific submit button.

Syntax

htmlFormElement.requestSubmit(submitter);

Parameters

submitter Optional

The submit button whose attributes describe the method by which the form is to be submitted. This may be either an <input> or <button> element whose type attribute is submit.

If you omit the submitter parameter, the form element itself is used as the submitter.

Return value

None.

Exceptions

TypeError

The specified submitter is not a submit button.

NotFoundError

The specified submitter isn't a member of the form on which requestSubmit() was called. The submitter must be either a descendant of the form element or must have an form attribute referring to the form.

Usage notes

The obvious question is: Why does this method exist, when we've had the submit() method since the dawn of time?

The answer is simple. submit() submits the form, but that's all it does. requestSubmit(), on the other hand, acts as if a submit button were clicked. The form's content is validated, and the form is submitted only if validation succeeds. Once the form has been submitted, the submit event is sent back to the form object.

Examples

In the example below, the form is submitted by attempting to send the request using requestSubmit() if it's available. If a submit button with the ID main-submit is found, that's used to submit the form. Otherwise, the form is submitted with no submitter parameter, so it's submitted directly by the form itself.

If, on the other hand, requestSubmit() isn't available, this code falls back to calling the form's submit() method.

let myForm = document.querySelector("form");
let submitButton = myForm.querySelector("#main-submit");

if (myForm.requestSubmit) {
  if (submitButton) {
    myForm.requestSubmit(submitButton);
  } else {
    myForm.requestSubmit();
  }
} else {
  myForm.submit();
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.