Avoiding multiple submissions of HTML form or POST data is a common requirement in Java web applications. Thankfully, You can prevent multiple
submissions by disabling the submit button in HTML and JavaScript itself, rather
than handling it on the server-side. This is a very common requirement while developing a web application using Servlet and JSP or any other web
technology. At the same time, there is a lot of information and noise available in
web, and its very hard to find a simple approach to the disable submit button. When I
search for a simple way to disable the submit button in HTML and JavaScript, I was
overwhelmed by responses on forums and various online communities.
Those are good for intermediate HTML and JavaScript developer but a beginner might just get overwhelmed by the amount of information presented and rather confused to use which the approach will work, how exactly should I disable submit button to prevent multiple form submissions etc.
That drives me to write this post and summarize the simplest possible approach to disable submit button using HTML and JavaScript. I see there could be issues related to browser compatibility which we can talk once we know the simplest approach and my the intention is to add those issues and there remedy as and when I know about it to keep this article update, relevant and simple.
By the way How to avoid multiple submission of HTML form is also a popular JSP Interview question and worth preparing.
Those are good for intermediate HTML and JavaScript developer but a beginner might just get overwhelmed by the amount of information presented and rather confused to use which the approach will work, how exactly should I disable submit button to prevent multiple form submissions etc.
That drives me to write this post and summarize the simplest possible approach to disable submit button using HTML and JavaScript. I see there could be issues related to browser compatibility which we can talk once we know the simplest approach and my the intention is to add those issues and there remedy as and when I know about it to keep this article update, relevant and simple.
By the way How to avoid multiple submission of HTML form is also a popular JSP Interview question and worth preparing.
How to disable submit button using JavaScript
You don't need to do a lot just add this.disabled='disabled' on onclick event
handler of button like below:
<form action="submit.jsp" method="post" >
<input type="submit" name="SUBMIT" value="Submit Form" onclick="this.disabled='disabled'" />
</form>
This JavaScript code will disable the submit button once clicked. Instead of this,
which represent current element similar to Java this keyword, You can
also use document.getElementById('id') but this is short
and clear.
Now some browser has problem to submit data from disabled button.
So, its better to call form.submit() from onclick itself to
submit form data, which makes your code to onclick="this.disabled=true;this.form.submit(). Particularly, on Internet Explorer a disabled submit button doesn't
submit form data to server. You can also change value or text of submit button
from submit to "Submitting...." to
indicate user that submit is in progress. Final JavaScript code should look
like:
<form action="submit.jsp" method="post" >
<input type="submit" name="SUBMIT" value="Submit Form" onclick="this.value='Submitting
..';this.disabled='disabled'; this.form.submit();" />
</form>
That's all you need to disable submit button using HTML and JavaScript to
prevent multiple submissions.
Once you are comfortable with a simple way of disabling the submit button you
may go and explore multiple ways to prevent multiple form submissions or disable
submit button. As I said if you are a beginner to JavaScript or HTML then it takes
some time to get hold of these tricks. If you are using Internet Explorer and
not calling this.form.submit() then the only button will be
disabled but the form will not be submitted so always call this.form.submit().
form.submit() doesn't include submit button name in request
if(WebUtils.hasSubmitParameter(request, "SUBMIT")){
//form has
been submitted start processing.
}
This code will fail if form is submitted by this.form.submit(), rather
than clicking submit button. Traditionally name of submit button is included in
HTTP request only if form is submitted by clicking submit button otherwise no.
Fortunately there is a workaround to this problem, You can call document.form_name.submit_name.click() to
simulate click on submit button.
This will include name of submit button in HTTP POST request and above Spring MVC example
will work as expected. If you don't have multiple buttons on screen and only
have one submit button than you can also use HTML hidden input field to send
name of submit button as shown in below
example:
<input type="hidden" value="meta data" name="SUBMIT" id="submit_hidden" />
Since code is only checking for any named parameter with name SUBMIT it
will work.
What if you have multiple submit buttons on one screen
There are cases when you have multiple HTML button in one screen like
"Accept" or "Decline", "Yes or "No" , Accept" or
"Reject" etc. In this case, clicking one button should disable both buttons
because there are intended for one operation.
In order to disable multiple submit
button in onclick, You need to explicitly disable
those buttons. As in following example, if you have two buttons with name accept and decline , we are
disabling both when any of the button get clicked.
<input type="submit"
id="accept"
name="ACCEPT"
value="Accept"
onclick="this.disabled='disabled';
document.getElementById('reject').disabled='disable';
this.form.submit();" />
<input type="submit"
id="reject"
name="REJECT"
value="Reject"
onclick="this.disabled='disabled';
document.getElementById('accept').disabled='disable';
this.form.submit();" />
This code may get clutter if you have more than two buttons and its best
to write a JavaScript function to disable all submit buttons on that group.
That’s all on How to disable the submit button in HTML and prevent
multiple form submissions on Server. Anyway, there are multiple ways to
accomplish this, both on the client-side and server-side. I prefer to do this on the client-side using JavaScript to avoid server round trips. Let us know how do you
prevent multiple form submissions in your web application.
Other Java web tutorials and Interview Questions you may like
P S. - Given the importance of Unit testing in software development, and with the growing importance of JavaScript in web development, I always feel the need for a good book on unit testing my JavaScript code. JavaScript Unit testing is a good read to fill that gap.
I have a problem with this code example.. what if i have missed the mandatory field and clicked the submit button.
ReplyDeletenext time it is not allowing the user to enter the field :(
@Arun, if you have client side validation than do it before submitting form. here we talked about disabling submit button and preventing multiple submissions, validation should be before that.
ReplyDeleteThis article tells just the half of the story. You'll need to enable the button back at some point in time, I guess :)
ReplyDelete@Yakov Fain, Once you send request to server, either you will go to another page or even if you return to same page, it would have been reloaded which makes the submit button enabled again.
ReplyDeleteI usually use Javascript for form submission, allowing me to validate data and do other stuff before the form is submitted. I noticed that "return false;" in the button onclick works better for this scenario as the example above disables the button and prevents any further use.
ReplyDeleteExample for a button:
id="btnShowReport" onclick="submitData();return false;"
where "submitData()" contains my validation and the call to submit the form.
Robert Stout
bobinsanantonio@yahoo.screwspam.com
@Javin, re your reply to Yakov Fain: Your example works if you're loading a new page in "_self". Occasionally, however, you need to send to _blank. "return false" works in both instances.
ReplyDeleteRobert Stout
bobinsanantonio@yahoo.screwspam.com
@3rd Anonymous before me:
ReplyDeleteBefore you're saying another people's example is shit, let's see if you can make any useful tutorial by yourself, shit. I've tried this tutorial, and it works. Or maybe, the difference is in the brain. I don't know. I feel pity for you. let's talk in civilized mode, because uncivilized people drives me uncivilized too.
Whoever made that uncivilized statement to the author's tutorial was very rude and immature. I would like to thank the author for this tutorial.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone think of a draw back for using this:
ReplyDeleteform onsubmit="document.getElementById('submit button id').disabled='disabled';"
would it catch multiple submissions?
can anyone help, consider an example containing 2 buttons SAVE and APPLY, apply should work after click on SAVE button only, using html and java script, thanks in advance
ReplyDelete