How can I prevent the Go button on iPad/iPhone from posting the form

Question

I have a dynamic form that is to be displayed using an iPad.

This form has a couple of radio buttons and some text fields and one submit button.

In an iPad t

Answer 1

I found a solution to my problem.

The base to the problem is that Safari mobile ignores onsubmit="return false" on buttons, it only works on forms.

Setting onsubmit="return false;" on the form, making a normal button (not submit) and setting onclick="form.submit()".

Ex.

<form method="post" onsubmit="return false;">
    ... //Other fields here

    <input type="button" value="Send" onclick="form.submit();" />
</form>

The Go button does not trigger a normal button, only submit buttons. Since the form has onsubmit="return false;" it will not post.

The button on the other hand, when clicked triggers the onclick="form.submit();" which overrides the onsubmit on the form.

This solution seems to work in any browser reliably.

Answer 2

Seems very unconventional, as this basically breaks general UX and expected device behaviour.

However, I think it also important to mention that this solution relies on the actual <form> DOM element. Meaning the onclick handler on the button should not use a jQuery object to submit but the DOM element.

jQuery object. Does not work:

<input type="button" value="Send" onclick="$("#myform").submit();" />

DOM element. Works:

<input type="button" value="Send" onclick="$("#myform").get(0).submit();" />

Without jQuery. Works:

<input type="button" value="Send" onclick="document.getElementById('myform').submit();" />

---

Also, here is a similar approach, using jQuery to intercept keyboard submits and only allowing clicks on a button. Credit goes to @levi: http://jsfiddle.net/RsKc7/

Answer 3

Cannot comment so i have to put a new message.

@David solution works fine if we are using an "input type button"; instead, if we are using a button tag doesn't seems to be solved by David fix.

(env: cordova, ipad mini 2)

Thanks David!

Answer 4

Go buttons and return buttons on mobile touch screen keyboards trigger the onclick event of your first submit button. To determine if its the user or script clicking the button, you can use the following:

$('#mybuttonId').onclick(e) {
  if (e.screenX && e.screenX != 0 && e.screenY && e.screenY != 0) {
    //This is the user clicking on the button.
  } else {
    //This is not the user, but a script , do nothing.
    return false;
  }
}

Answer 5

Better answer is this. The other does not allow you to use a regular submit button. This attacks just the go button.

$("body").keydown(function(){
    if(event.keyCode == 13) {
        document.activeElement.blur();
        return false;
    }
});

Answer 6

Here's an additional answer, in case anyone winds up chasing this issue like I did.

Provided you're using jQuery, the following snippet should prevent the "Go" button from triggering a form submission (at least it does on Nexus 7's Chrome on Android 4.2.2; YMMMV). Also, note that if you want to allow the "Enter" key to work on any of the input types below, this will prevent that from happening.

$(document.body).on('keydown', 'input:text, input[type=password], input[type=email]',     
    function (e) { 
        // Android maps the "Go" button to the Enter key => key code 13
        if (e.keyCode == 13) {
            return false; 
        }
    });

Edit: It seems this bug breaks keyup/keydown in Chrome in Android > 4.3, in which case this fix will no longer work in some circumstances.