Why doesn't my form post when I disable the submit button to prevent double clicking?

Question

Like every other web developer on the planet, I have an issue with users double clicking the submit button on my forms. My understanding is that the conventional way to han

Answer 1

"Disabling" HTML controls doesn't always produce consistent behavior in all major browsers. So I try to stay away from doing that on the client-side, because (working with the ASP.NET model) you need to keep track of element's state on client and server in that case.

What I'd do is move button off the visible part of the window by switching the button's className to a CSS class that contains the following:

.hiddenButton
{
  position: absolute;
  top: -1000px;
  left: -1000px;
}

Now, what to put in place of the button?

1. Either an image that looks like a disabled button
2. Or just plain text that says "Please wait..."

And this can be done the same way but in reverse. Start with the element being hidden at page load and then switch to a visible className on form submit.