Question

If we write something as follow:

<a href="MyServlet">Link</a>

It will call GET method of that servlet. Can I send post request on click of a tag? Is it possible?

I know how to do this with Javascript but want to know if this could be done without JavaScript.

Answer 1

The solution is to surround the anchor in a form, which has the post method and the action you wish to execute. On the anchor put a javascript to submit the form

<form name="submitForm" method="POST" action="/servlet/ServletName">
    <input type="hidden" name="param1" value="param1Value">
    <A HREF="javascript:document.submitForm.submit()">Click Me</A>
</form>

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edit

I think I should mention that this isn’t a good idea.

Links take you to pages, that’s what users understand them to do. To break the users assumptions and cause a link to POST, to do an irrevocable thing, is generally considered a bad idea.

Use a button, label it semantically, then your user knows that clicking this does something.

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second edit

I really need to emphasise that this isn’t a good idea at all.

This breaks the internet.