How to add URL data (variables) when submiting a form?

Question

I have this form on my web page:

<form action="my_target_file.py">
    <!-- some input textboxes here -->
    <input type="submit" value="Go!" />
</form>

When the form is submitted, I can access those values (the ones in the textboxes and other controls) easily. But I want to add some data to the my_target_file.py URL. For example, using Javascript, I can check if there's a checkbox checked or not. If it's checked, then I want to call my_target_file.py?checked=1 when submiting the form, along with all those values which the user has entered at the textboxes.

My current solution is to have a hidden textbox which I fill using Javascript when the checkbox is checked, for example. Then I read the hidden textbox from my_target_file.py, but that's not too clean.

How can I achieve this?

Joseph Myers · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-07 20:15:02Z

1

Simply name the checkbox "checked" and set its value to "1"--JavaScript is not needed.

<input type="checkbox" name="checked" value="1" />

When added to the form code that you provided, the above checkbox will add a query string value of checked=1 within the existing query string if and only if the user has checked the checkbox.

As per your comment below, you can append hidden fields within a form like this:

var box = document.createElement('input');
box.type = 'hidden';
box.value = '1';
box.name = 'checked';
form.appendChild(box);

Do this for each parameter name and value that you want to store, and replace form with the JavaScript object that represents your form, e.g., document.forms[0] or document.getElementById("formid").

edited Mar 7, 2014 at 20:15

answered Mar 7, 2014 at 20:02

Joseph Myers

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4 Comments

cdonts Over a year ago

Thanks for your answer, but all the checkbox stuff is just an example :-(. In my HTML file I have some values which are printed by my templating engine, and I want to pass them to my_target_file.py when submiting.

Joseph Myers Over a year ago

@cdonts You can append elements within the JavaScript form with appropriate names and values, which will then become a part of the existing query string when the form is submitted. That would work for you, although that would also be more complicated than simply using one hidden field and parsing both it and the normal query string on the server side, as you are doing right now.

cdonts Over a year ago

But don't you think my current solution is a little bit ugly? I think I'll like your solution maybe, how can achieve that?

cdonts Over a year ago

That's different from what I expected, but I like it. Thanks!

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