Perform a POST request from a JS method, so that variable values can be sent as parameters.
I'm not a jQuery expert, but I think the first attempt doesn't work because $.post
makes an AJAX request, the same way as you would in a single-page app to interact with an API in the background.
Your second example submits a form, which is an in-browser action that performs a navigation action (as specified by the method
attribute of the form). In this case, the event listener you add in jQuery is redundant, and should be removed - it's making another background POST
request, before the form submits the content of its fields in its request.
As for your second question, the way to submit additional variables with a form submission (presuming that you actually want to do a navigating form submission and not an XHR background request against an API) is to use <input type="hidden">
elements.
So, to summarize, to do what you're describing in your question, your example HTML should look like this (minus the comments):
<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- only you can prevent quirks mode -->
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8"> <!-- ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give UNICODE -->
</head>
<body>
<form action='/vote' method='post'>
<input type="hidden" name="message" value="hello!">
<button id='send' type='submit' class='btn btn-success btn-xs'>Svara</button>
</form>
</body>
</html>