Question

Currently my form is being submitted through ASP.NET as well as through AJAX, but I only want it submitted through AJAX (and i don’t want to use Ajax.BeginForm because it’s smelly).

Please note I stripped data from the form down to just the elements involved, more or less.

    @using (Html.BeginForm("Action", "Controller", FormMethod.Post))
    {
    <div style="width:275px;">
        <a href="#" id="edit_licenses" class="grayBtn left">Edit</a>
        <a href="#" id="cancel_licenses" style="display:none;" class="grayBtn left">Cancel</a>
        <input id="submit_licenses" type="submit" style="display:none;" value="Save" class="redBtn right" />
    </div>
    }
    <br />
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $('#edit_licenses').click(function () {
        swap_licenses(false);
        return false;
    });

    $('#cancel_licenses').click(function () {
        swap_licenses(true);
        $('form').resetForm();
        return false;
    });

    $('form').submit(function (e) {
        if ($(this).valid()) {
            $.ajax({
                url: this.action,
                type: this.method,
                data: $(this).serialize(),
                success: function (result) {

                }
            });
        }
        return false;
    });

    var swap_licenses = function (bool) {
        $('.licenses').each(function () { $(this).attr('disabled', bool); });
        $('#submit_licenses, #edit_licenses, #cancel_licenses').toggle();
    }
</script>

Answer 1

Did you try using the preventDefault method to prevent the normal form submit ?

$(function(){ 

   $('#submit_licenses').click(function (e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        var _this=$(this);
        swap_licenses(false);           
        PostForm(_this.closest("form"));
   });

});

function PostForm(postedForm)
{
   //postedForm will be the form object here. You may do your validation here

     $.ajax({
              url: postedForm.attr("action"),
              type: postedForm.attr("method"),
              data: postedForm.serialize(),
              success: function (result) {               
            }
      });
 }

function swap_licenses(someParameter)
{
   //This method does something useful
}

Now you do not need to the event handler for form submit event as we already bounded that to the submit button.

Also form submitting/posting should be always a HTTP Post method. So you can simplify your PostForm method like this

function PostForm(postedForm)
{
    $.post(postedForm.attr("action"),postedForm.serialize(),function(data){
       //do something with the response
    });          
 }