Question

There is a JavaScript function that is normally called through a form tag, using onsubmit.

In the code it looks like this:

<form method="post" name="form1" id="form1" onsubmit="return validate(this)">

If I were going to call the validate function through some other method, what variable would I pass it? I mean, the ‘this’ in the onsubmit call, what would I put there instead? Would it be the id of the form, so "form1"?

Answer 1

this refers to the element that the tag creates, that is, the form element. So you would call it with:

validate(document.getElementById('form1');

For more information on events, check out this introduction. The onsubmit attribute you’re using is an inline event handler.