Question

Is it possible to get a form elements value using javascript if the action goes to a different page?
Here are snippets of code to illustrate what I’m trying to do:

index.html:

<form name="testMe" action="show_music.jsp" method="get">
<p>I am interested in these types of music:</p>
<select id="music" name="music" multiple>
            <option value="classical">Classical</option>
            <option value="christian">Christian</option>
            <option value="alternative">Alternative</option>
            <option value="rock">Rock</option>
            <option value="latin">Latin</option>
            <option value="pop">Pop</option>
            <option value="disco">Disco</option>
            </select>

show_music.jsp

<p>Here are the music styles you like: </p>
<script type="text/javascript">
    var e = document.getElementById("music");
    var value = e.options[e.selectedIndex].text;
    alert("Var is: " + value);
</script>

I’ve been trying different combinations of trying to get the values of that select list, but no luck. Is it even possible? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In this cases it’s better to use server-side to gather the value, so if possible, use POST instead of GET, using JSP (and you can pass the value to Javascript easily):

alert('Var is: <%=request.getParameter("music")%>');

Or if you can’t/don’t want to use POST, use query string parsing like some suggested