Stop form refreshing page on submit

How would I go about preventing the page from refreshing when pressing the send button without any data in the fields?

The validation is setup working fine, all fields go red but then the page is immediately refreshed. My knowledge of JS is relatively basic.

In particular I think the processForm() function at the bottom is 'bad'.

HTML

<form id="prospects_form" method="post">
    <input id="form_name" tabindex="1" class="boxsize" type="text" name="name" placeholder="Full name*" maxlength="80" value="" />
    <input id="form_email" tabindex="2" class="boxsize" type="text" name="email" placeholder="Email*" maxlength="100" value="" />
    <input id="form_subject" class="boxsize" type="text" name="subject" placeholder="Subject*" maxlength="50" value="FORM: Row for OUBC" />
    <textarea id="form_message" class="boxsize" name="message" placeholder="Message*" tabindex="3" rows="6" cols="5" maxlength="500"></textarea>
        
    <button id="form_send" tabindex="5" class="btn" type="submit" onclick="return processForm()">Send</button>
    <div id="form_validation">
        <span class="form_captcha_code"></span>
        <input id="form_captcha" class="boxsize" type="text" name="form_captcha" placeholder="Enter code" tabindex="4" value="" />
    </div>
    <div class="clearfix"></div>
</form>

JS

$(document).ready(function() { 

// Add active class to inputs
$("#prospects_form .boxsize").focus(function() { $(this).addClass("hasText"); });
$("#form_validation .boxsize").focus(function() { $(this).parent().addClass("hasText"); });
// Remove active class from inputs (if empty)
$("#prospects_form .boxsize").blur(function() { if ( this.value === "") { $(this).removeClass("hasText"); } });
$("#form_validation .boxsize").blur(function() { if ( this.value === "") { $(this).parent().removeClass("hasText"); } });


 
///////////////////
// START VALIDATION
$("#prospects_form").ready(function() {
	
	// DEFINE GLOBAL VARIABLES
	var valName = $('#form_name'),
		valEmail = $("#form_email"),
		valEmailFormat = /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/,
		valMsg = $('#form_message'),
		valCaptcha = $('#form_captcha'),
		valCaptchaCode = $('.form_captcha_code');
		


	// Generate captcha
	function randomgen() {
		var rannumber = "";
		// Iterate through 1 to 9, 4 times
		for(ranNum=1; ranNum<=4; ranNum++){ rannumber+=Math.floor(Math.random()*10).toString(); }
		// Apply captcha to element
		valCaptchaCode.html(rannumber);
	}
	randomgen();
	
	
	// CAPTCHA VALIDATION
	valCaptcha.blur(function() {
		function formCaptcha() {
			if ( valCaptcha.val() == valCaptchaCode.html() ) {
				// Incorrect
				valCaptcha.parent().addClass("invalid");
				return false;
			} else {
				// Correct
				valCaptcha.parent().removeClass("invalid");
				return true;
			}
		}
		formCaptcha();
	});
	
	// Remove invalid class from captcha if typing
	valCaptcha.keypress(function() {
		valCaptcha.parent().removeClass("invalid");
	});
	
	
	// EMAIL VALIDATION (BLUR)
	valEmail.blur(function() {
		function formEmail() {
			if (!valEmailFormat.test(valEmail.val()) && valEmail.val() !== "" ) {
				// Incorrect
				valEmail.addClass("invalid");
			} else {
				// Correct
				valEmail.removeClass("invalid");
			}
		}
		formEmail();
	});
	
	// Remove invalid class from email if typing
	valEmail.keypress(function() {
		valEmail.removeClass("invalid");
	});
	
	
	// VALIDATION ON SUBMIT
	$('#prospects_form').submit(function() {
		console.log('user hit send button');

		// EMAIL VALIDATION (SUBMIT)
		function formEmailSubmit() {
			if (!valEmailFormat.test(valEmail.val())) {
				// Incorrect
				valEmail.addClass("invalid");
			} else {
				// Correct
				valEmail.removeClass("invalid");
			}
		}
		formEmailSubmit();

		// Validate captcha
		function formCaptchaSubmit() {
			if( valCaptcha.val() === valCaptchaCode.html() ) {
				// Captcha is correct
			} else {
				// Captcha is incorrect
				valCaptcha.parent().addClass("invalid");
				randomgen();
			}
		}
		formCaptchaSubmit();
		
		
		// If NAME field is empty
		function formNameSubmit() {
			if ( valName.val() === "" ) {
				// Name is empty
				valName.addClass("invalid");
			} else {
				valName.removeClass("invalid");
			}
		}
		formNameSubmit();
		
		
		// If MESSAGE field is empty
		function formMessageSubmit() {
			if ( valMsg.val() === "" ) {
				// Name is empty
				valMsg.addClass("invalid");
			} else {
				valMsg.removeClass("invalid");
			}
		}
		formMessageSubmit();
	
	
		// Submit form (if all good)
		function processForm() {
			if ( formEmailSubmit() && formCaptchaSubmit() && formNameSubmit() && formMessageSubmit() ) {
				$("#prospects_form").attr("action", "/clients/oubc/row-for-oubc-send.php");
				$("#form_send").attr("type", "submit");
				return true;
			} else if( !formEmailSubmit() ) {
				valEmail.addClass("invalid");
				return false;
			} else if ( !formCaptchaSubmit() ) {
				valCaptcha.parent().addClass("invalid");
				return false;
			} else if ( !formNameSubmit() ) {
				valName.addClass("invalid");
					return false;
				} else if ( !formMessageSubmit() ) {
					valMsg.addClass("invalid");
					return false;
				} else {
					return false;
				}
			}
		});
	});
	// END VALIDATION
	/////////////////
});

You can prevent the form from submitting with

$("#prospects_form").submit(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
});

Of course, in the function, you can check for empty fields, and if anything doesn't look right, e.preventDefault() will stop the submit.

Without jQuery:

var form = document.getElementById("myForm");
function handleForm(event) { event.preventDefault(); } 
form.addEventListener('submit', handleForm);

Add this onsubmit="return false" code:

<form onsubmit="return false">

That fixed it for me. It will still run the onClick function you specify.

Replace button type to button:

<button type="button">My Cool Button</button>

One great way to prevent reloading the page when submitting using a form is by adding return false with your onsubmit attribute.

<form onsubmit="yourJsFunction();return false">
    <input type="text"/>
    <input type="submit"/>
</form>

You can use this code for form submission without a page refresh. I have done this in my project.

$(function () {
	$('#myFormName').on('submit',function (e) {

			  $.ajax({
				type: 'post',
				url: 'myPageName.php',
				data: $('#myFormName').serialize(),
				success: function () {
				 alert("Email has been sent!");
				}
			  });
          e.preventDefault();
        });
});

This problem becomes more complex when you give the user 2 possibilities to submit the form:

1. by clicking on an ad hoc button
2. by hitting Enter key

In such a case you will need a function which detects the pressed key in which you will submit the form if Enter key was hit.

And now comes the problem with IE (in any case version 11) Remark: This issue does not exist with Chrome nor with FireFox !

• When you click the submit button the form is submitted once; fine.
• When you hit Enter the form is submitted twice ... and your servlet will be executed twice. If you don't have PRG (post redirect get) architecture serverside the result might be unexpected.

Even though the solution looks trivial, it tooks me many hours to solve this problem, so I hope it might be usefull for other folks. This solution has been successfully tested, among others, on IE (v 11.0.9600.18426), FF (v 40.03) & Chrome (v 53.02785.143 m 64 bit)

The source code HTML & js are in the snippet. The principle is described there. Warning:

> You can't test it in the snippet because the post action is not > defined and hitting Enter key might interfer with stackoverflow.

If you faced this issue, then just copy/paste js code to your environment and adapt it to your context.

/*
 * inForm points to the form
 */
var inForm = document.getElementById('idGetUserFrm');
/*
 * IE submits the form twice
 * To avoid this the boolean isSumbitted is:
 *  1) initialized to false when the form is displayed 4 the first time
 * Remark: it is not the same event as "body load"
 */
var isSumbitted = false;

function checkEnter(e) {
  if (e && e.keyCode == 13) {
    inForm.submit();
    /*
      * 2) set to true after the form submission was invoked
      */
    isSumbitted = true;
  }
}
function onSubmit () {
  if (isSumbitted) {
    /*
    * 3) reset to false after the form submission executed
    */
    isSumbitted = false;
    return false;
  }
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<form id="idGetUserFrm" method="post" action="servletOrSomePhp" onsubmit="return onSubmit()">
   First name:<br>
   <input type="text" name="firstname" value="Mickey">
   <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

</body>
</html>

The best solution is onsubmit call any function whatever you want and return false after it.

onsubmit="xxx_xxx(); return false;"

Most people would prevent the form from submitting by calling the event.preventDefault() function.

Another means is to remove the onclick attribute of the button, and get the code in processForm() out into .submit(function() { as return false; causes the form to not submit. Also, make the formBlaSubmit() functions return Boolean based on validity, for use in processForm();

katsh's answer is the same, just easier to digest.

(By the way, I'm new to stackoverflow, give me guidance please. )

In pure Javascript, use: e.preventDefault()

e.preventDefault() is used in jquery but works in javascript.

document.querySelector(".buttonclick").addEventListener("click", 
function(e){

  //some code

  e.preventDefault();
})

Personally I like to validate the form on submit and if there are errors, just return false.

$('form').submit(function() {

    var error;

   if ( !$('input').val() ) {
        error = true
    }

    if (error) {
         alert('there are errors')
         return false
    }

});

http://jsfiddle.net/dfyXY/

 $("#buttonID").click(function (e) {
          e.preventDefault();
         //some logic here
 }

The best way to do so with JS is using preventDefault() function. Consider the code below for reference:

function loadForm(){
    var loginForm = document.querySelector('form'); //Selecting the form
    loginForm.addEventListener('submit', login);    //looking for submit
}

function login(e){
    e.preventDefault(); //to stop form action i.e. submit
}

If you want to use Pure Javascript then the following snippet will be better than anything else.

Suppose:

HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <title>Form Without Submiting With Pure JS</title>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            window.onload = function(){
                /**
                 * Just Make sure to return false so that your request will not go the server script
                 */
                document.getElementById('simple_form').onsubmit = function(){
                    // After doing your logic that you want to do 

                    return false 
                }
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        
    </body>
</html>
<form id="simple_form" method="post">
    <!-- Your Inputs will go here  -->
    <input type="submit" value="Submit Me!!" />
</form>

Hope so it works for You!!

Just use "javascript:" in your action attribute of form if you are not using action.

In my opinion, most answers are trying to solve the problem asked on your question, but I don't think that's the best approach for your scenario.

> How would I go about preventing the page from refreshing when pressing the send button without any data in the fields?

A .preventDefault() does indeed not refresh the page. But I think that a simple require on the fields you want populated with data, would solve your problem.

<form id="prospects_form" method="post">
    <input id="form_name" tabindex="1" class="boxsize" type="text" name="name" placeholder="Full name*" maxlength="80" value="" required/>
    <input id="form_email" tabindex="2" class="boxsize" type="text" name="email" placeholder="Email*" maxlength="100" value="" required/>
    <input id="form_subject" class="boxsize" type="text" name="subject" placeholder="Subject*" maxlength="50" value="FORM: Row for OUBC" required/>
    <textarea id="form_message" class="boxsize" name="message" placeholder="Message*" tabindex="3" rows="6" cols="5" maxlength="500"></textarea>
</form>

Notice the require tag added at the end of each input. The result will be the same: not refreshing the page without any data in the fields.

<form onsubmit="myFunction(event)">
    Name : <input type="text"/>
    <input class="submit" type="submit">
  </form>
  <script>
  function myFunction(event){
    event.preventDefault();
    //code here
  }
  </script>

function ajax_form(selector, obj)
{

	var form = document.querySelectorAll(selector);
	
	if(obj)
	{

		var before = obj.before ? obj.before : function(){return true;};

		var $success = obj.success ? obj.success: function(){return true;};
		
		for (var i = 0; i < form.length; i++)
		{

			var url = form[i].hasAttribute('action') ? form[i].getAttribute('action') : window.location;

			var $form = form[i];
			
			form[i].submit = function()
			{

				var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();

				xhttp.open("POST", url, true);

				var FD = new FormData($form);

				/** prevent submiting twice */
				if($form.disable === true)

					return this;

				$form.disable = true;
				
				if(before() === false)

					return;
					
				xhttp.addEventListener('load', function()
				{

					$form.disable = false;

					return $success(JSON.parse(this.response));

				});

				xhttp.send(FD);

			}
		}
	}
	
	return form;
}

Didn't check how it works. You can also bind(this) so it will work like jquery ajaxForm

use it like:

ajax_form('form',
{
	before: function()
	{
		alert('submiting form');
		// if return false form shouldn't be submitted
	},
	success:function(data)
	{
		console.log(data)
	}
}
)[0].submit();

it return nodes so you can do something like submit i above example

so far from perfection but it suppose to work, you should add error handling or remove disable condition

Sometimes e.preventDefault(); works then developers are happy but sometimes not work then developers are sad then I found solution why sometimes not works

first code sometimes works

$("#prospects_form").submit(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
});

second option why not work? This doesn't work because jquery or other javascript library not loading properly you can check it in console that all jquery and javascript files are loaded properly or not.

This solves my problem. I hope this will be helpful for you.

I hope this will be the last answer

<!-- begin snippet: js hide: false console: true babel: false -->

<!-- language: lang-js -->

    $('#the_form').submit(function(e){
      e.preventDefault()
      alert($(this).serialize())
      // var values = $(this).serialize()
      // logic....
    })

<!-- language: lang-html -->

    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

    <form id="the_form">
       Label-A <input type="text" name='a'required><br>
       Label-B <input type="text" name="b" required><br>
       Label-C <input type="password" name="c" required><br>
       Label-D <input type="number" name="d" required><br>
       <input type="submit" value="Save without refresh">
    </form>

<!-- end snippet -->

For pure JavaScript use the click method instead

<div id="loginForm">
    <ul class="sign-in-form">
        <li><input type="text" name="username"/></li>
        <li><input type="password" name="password"/></li>
        <li>
            <input type="submit" onclick="loginForm()" value="click" />
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

<script>
function loginForm() {
    document.getElementById("loginForm").click();
}
</script>

Just found a very simple yet working solution, by removing <form></form> from the section I wanted to prevent from posting and refreshing.

<select id="youId" name="yourName">
<select> 
<option value="1</option>
<option value="2</option>
<option value="3</option>
</select>
<input id="formStockVal1" type="number"><br><br>
<form> 
<button type="reset" id="stockCancel">Cancel</button>
<button type="reset" id="stockConfirm">Add</button>
</form>

Here only Buttons submit as they should.

Just Put return like this:

function validate()
{

  var username=document.getElementById('username').value;
  
	  if(username=="")
	  {
		return false;	
	  }
	  if(username.length<5&&username.length<15)
	  {
	  	alert("Length should between 5 to 15 characters");
	  	return false;
	  }
	  
	  return true;
}

body{
	padding: 0px;
	margin:0px;
}

input{
	display: block;
	margin-bottom:10px;
	height:25px;
	width:200px;
}

input[type="submit"]{
	margin:auto;
}

label{
	display:block;
	margin-bottom:10px;
}

form{
		width:500px;
		height:500px;
		border:1px solid green;
		padding:10px;
		margin:auto;
		top:0;
		bottom:0;
		left:0;
		right:0;
		position:absolute;		
}

.labels{
	width: 35%;
	box-sizing:border-box;
	display: inline-block;
}

.inputs{
	width: 63%;
	box-sizing:border-box;
	padding:10px;
	display: inline-block;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
	<meta charset="UTF-8">
	<title>FORM VALIDATION</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">

	<script type="text/javascript" src="script.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
	<form action="#">
		<div class="labels">
			<label>Name</label>
			<label>Email</label>
		</div>

		<div class="inputs">
			<input type="text" name="username" id="username" required>
			<input type="text" name="email" id="email" required>
		</div>
		
		<input type="submit" value="submit" onclick="return validate();">
	</form>
</body>

</html>

Return true and false from validate(); function as per requirement

<FORM NAME=frm1 ...>
Name: <input type=textbox name=txtName id=txtName>
<BR>
<input type=button value="Submit" onclick=Validate()>



<Script>
    function Validate() { 
        Msg = ""

// Check fields
        if(frm1.txtName.value fails this) {
            Msg += "\n    The Name Field is improper"
        }
// Do the same for the rest of the form

        if(Msg == "") {
            frm1.submit()
        } else {
            alert("Your form has errors\n" + Msg)
        }
    }
</SCRIPT>