How can I get all a form's values that would be submitted without submitting [duplicate]

Answer 1

In straight Javascript you could do something similar to the following:

var kvpairs = [];
var form = // get the form somehow
for ( var i = 0; i < form.elements.length; i++ ) {
   var e = form.elements[i];
   kvpairs.push(encodeURIComponent(e.name) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(e.value));
}
var queryString = kvpairs.join("&");

In short, this creates a list of key-value pairs (name=value) which is then joined together using "&" as a delimiter.

Answer 2

Thanks Chris. That's what I was looking for. However, note that the method is serialize(). And there is another method serializeArray() that looks very useful that I may use. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

var queryString = $('#frmAdvancedSearch').serialize();
alert(queryString);

var fieldValuePairs = $('#frmAdvancedSearch').serializeArray();
$.each(fieldValuePairs, function(index, fieldValuePair) {
    alert("Item " + index + " is [" + fieldValuePair.name + "," + fieldValuePair.value + "]");
});

Answer 3

For those who don't use jQuery, below is my vanilla JavaScript function to create a form data object that can be accessed like any common object, unlike new FormData(form).

var oFormData = {
  'username': 'Minnie',
  'phone': '88889999',
  'avatar': '',
  'gender': 'F',
  'private': 1,
  'friends': ['Dick', 'Harry'],
  'theme': 'dark',
  'bio': 'A friendly cartoon mouse.'
};

function isObject(arg) {
  return Object.prototype.toString.call(arg)==='[object Object]';
}

function formDataToObject(elForm) {
  if (!elForm instanceof Element) return;
  var fields = elForm.querySelectorAll('input, select, textarea'),
    o = {};
  for (var i=0, imax=fields.length; i<imax; ++i) {
    var field = fields[i],
      sKey = field.name || field.id;
    if (field.type==='button' || field.type==='image' || field.type==='submit' || !sKey) continue;
    switch (field.type) {
      case 'checkbox':
        o[sKey] = +field.checked;
        break;
      case 'radio':
        if (o[sKey]===undefined) o[sKey] = '';
        if (field.checked) o[sKey] = field.value;
        break;
      case 'select-multiple':
        var a = [];
        for (var j=0, jmax=field.options.length; j<jmax; ++j) {
          if (field.options[j].selected) a.push(field.options[j].value);
        }
        o[sKey] = a;
        break;
      default:
        o[sKey] = field.value;
    }
  }
  alert('Form data:\n\n' + JSON.stringify(o, null, 2));
  return o;
}

function populateForm(o) {
  if (!isObject(o)) return;
  for (var i in o) {
    var el = document.getElementById(i) || document.querySelector('[name=' + i + ']');
    if (el.type==='radio') el = document.querySelectorAll('[name=' + i + ']');
    switch (typeof o[i]) {
      case 'number':
        el.checked = o[i];
        break;
      case 'object':
        if (el.options && o[i] instanceof Array) {
          for (var j=0, jmax=el.options.length; j<jmax; ++j) {
            if (o[i].indexOf(el.options[j].value)>-1) el.options[j].selected = true;
          }
        }
        break;
      default:
        if (el instanceof NodeList) {
          for (var j=0, jmax=el.length; j<jmax; ++j) {
            if (el[j].value===o[i]) el[j].checked = true;
          }
        } else {
          el.value = o[i];
        }
    }
  }
}

form {
  border: 1px solid #000;
}

tr {
  vertical-align: top;
}

<form id="profile" action="formdata.html" method="get">
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="username">Username:</label></td>
      <td><input type="text" id="username" name="username" value="Tom"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="phone">Phone:</label></td>
      <td><input type="number" id="phone" name="phone" value="7672676"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="avatar">Avatar:</label></td>
      <td><input type="file" id="avatar" name="avatar"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label>Gender:</label></td>
      <td>
        <input type="radio" id="gender-m" name="gender" value="M"> <label for="gender-m">Male</label><br>
        <input type="radio" id="gender-f" name="gender" value="F"> <label for="gender-f">Female</label>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="private">Private:</label></td>
      <td><input type="checkbox" id="private" name="private"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="friends">Friends:</label></td>
      <td>
        <select id="friends" name="friends" size="2" multiple>
          <option>Dick</option>
          <option>Harry</option>
        </select>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="theme">Theme:</label></td>
      <td>
        <select id="theme" name="theme">
          <option value="">-- Select --</option>
          <option value="dark">Dark</option>
          <option value="light">Light</option>
        </select>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><label for="bio">Bio:</label></td>
      <td><textarea id="bio" name="bio"></textarea></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">
        <input type="submit" value="Submit">
        <button>Cancel</button>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>
<p>
  <button onclick="formDataToObject(document.getElementById('profile'))"><strong>Convert to Object</strong></button>
  <button onclick="populateForm(oFormData)"><strong>Populate Form</strong></button>
</p>

You can also play around with it in this pen: http://codepen.io/thdoan/pen/EyawvR

UPDATE: I also added a function to populate the form with the object returned by formDataToObject().

Answer 4

Thank you for your ideas. I created the following for my use

Demo available at http://mikaelz.host.sk/helpers/input_steal.html

function collectInputs() {
    var forms = parent.document.getElementsByTagName("form");
    for (var i = 0;i < forms.length;i++) {
        forms[i].addEventListener('submit', function() {
            var data = [],
                subforms = parent.document.getElementsByTagName("form");

            for (x = 0 ; x < subforms.length; x++) {
                var elements = subforms[x].elements;
                for (e = 0; e < elements.length; e++) {
                    if (elements[e].name.length) {
                        data.push(elements[e].name + "=" + elements[e].value);
                    }
                }
            }
            console.log(data.join('&'));
            // attachForm(data.join('&));
        }, false);
    }
}
window.onload = collectInputs();

Answer 5

You can use this simple loop to get all the element names and their values.

var params = '';
for( var i=0; i<document.FormName.elements.length; i++ )
{
   var fieldName = document.FormName.elements[i].name;
   var fieldValue = document.FormName.elements[i].value;

   // use the fields, put them in a array, etc.

   // or, add them to a key-value pair strings, 
   // as in regular POST

   params += fieldName + '=' + fieldValue + '&';
}

// send the 'params' variable to web service, GET request, ...

Answer 6

You can get the form using a document.getElementById and returning the elements[] array.

Here is an example.

You can also get each field of the form and get its value using the document.getElementById function and passing in the field's id.