Submit Rails 4 form with link instead of button

Question

I see some issues similar but they seem contrived and mostly for previous versions of Rails.

What is the simplest way to submit a form with an anchor tag (link) instead of the normal button

<%= f.submit 'Search', :class => "button expand"%>

What is the most concise way (best practice) way to change that to a link that submits?

Answer 1

I often use js/jquery to submit forms. It's very useful if the submit button is outside of the form or if there is more than one button that submits the same form.

$(".submit-btn").click(function(event) {
  event.preventDefault();
  $("#form-id").submit();
});

The event.preventDefault(); prevents the default button/submit behaviour.

Here is a coffeescript example I have used in a rails 4 project:

ready = ->
  if $("#form-id").length > 0
    $(".submit-btn").click (event) ->
      event.preventDefault()
      $("#form-id").submit()

$(document).ready ready
$(document).on "page:load", ready

Also note, this way the link can be any type of element - not necessarily a submit button. You do not have to have the submit button inside the form, but if you do the preventDefault will prevent the default form submission behaviour.