files/en-us/web/api/htmlformelement/requestsubmit/index.md
{{APIRef("HTML DOM")}}
The {{domxref("HTMLFormElement")}} method requestSubmit() requests
that the form be submitted using a specific submit button.
requestSubmit()
requestSubmit(submitter)
submitter {{optional_inline}}
: A {{Glossary("submit button")}} that is a member of the form.
If the submitter specifies form* attributes, they will override the form's submission behavior (e.g., formmethod="POST").
If the submitter has a name attribute or is an {{HtmlElement('input/image', '<input type="image">')}}, its data will be included in the form submission (e.g., btnName=btnValue).
If you omit the submitter parameter, the form element itself is used as the submitter.
None ({{jsxref("undefined")}}).
submitter is not a {{Glossary("submit button")}}.NotFoundError {{domxref("DOMException")}}
submitter isn't a member of the form on
which requestSubmit() was called. The submitter must be either a
descendant of the form element or must have a form
attribute referring to the form.The obvious question is: Why does this method exist, when we've had the {{domxref("HTMLFormElement.submit", "submit()")}} method since the dawn of time?
The answer is simple. submit() submits the form, but that's all it
does. requestSubmit(), on the other hand, acts as if a submit button were
clicked. The form's content is validated, and the form is submitted only if validation
succeeds. Once the form has been submitted, the
{{domxref("HTMLFormElement.submit_event", "submit")}} event is sent back to the form
object.
In the example below, the form is submitted by attempting to send the request using
requestSubmit() if it's available. If a submit button with the
ID main-submit is found, that's used to submit the form. Otherwise, the
form is submitted with no submitter parameter, so it's submitted directly
by the form itself.
If, on the other hand, requestSubmit() isn't available, this code falls
back to calling the form's {{domxref("HTMLFormElement.submit", "submit()")}} method.
let myForm = document.querySelector("form");
let submitButton = myForm.querySelector("#main-submit");
if (myForm.requestSubmit) {
if (submitButton) {
myForm.requestSubmit(submitButton);
} else {
myForm.requestSubmit();
}
} else {
myForm.submit();
}
{{Specifications}}
{{Compat}}