Submit form using a link on JSP

Question

I want to submit a simple form, but instead of using a button, I want to do it through a link. Since I'm not using JSF, I cannot use the h:commandLink component. I do not know how to do it in plain JSP/HTML. Any ideas?

Answer 1

There are two ways.

1. Use CSS to style the button to look like a link.

   <input type="submit" value="link" class="link">
   

   with for example

   .link {
       margin: 0;
       border: 0;
       background: none;
       overflow: visible;
       color: blue;
       cursor: pointer;
   }
   

2. Or, use JavaScript to grab the form and submit it.

   <form id="formid">
        <a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('formid').submit()">link</a>
   </form>
   

   It only won't work in browsers with JS disabled. It's however what JSF h:commandLink is doing under the covers (JSF components just generates plain HTML/CSS/JS after all, the webbrowser doesn't understand anything else).