HTMLFormElement: submit event

The submit event fires when a {{HtmlElement("form")}} is submitted.

Note that the submit event fires on the <form> element itself, and not on any {{HtmlElement("button")}} or {{HtmlElement('input/submit', '<input type="submit">')}} inside it. However, the {{domxref("SubmitEvent")}} which is sent to indicate the form's submit action has been triggered includes a {{domxref("SubmitEvent.submitter", "submitter")}} property, which is the button that was invoked to trigger the submit request.

The submit event fires when:

the user clicks a {{Glossary("submit button")}},
the user presses <kbd>Enter</kbd> while editing a field (e.g., {{HtmlElement('input/text', '<input type="text">')}}) in a form,
a script calls the {{domxref("HTMLFormElement.requestSubmit()", "form.requestSubmit()")}} method

However, the event is not sent to the form when a script calls the {{domxref("HTMLFormElement.submit()", "form.submit()")}} method directly.

[!NOTE] Trying to submit a form that does not pass validation triggers an {{domxref("HTMLInputElement/invalid_event", "invalid")}} event. In this case, the validation prevents form submission, and thus there is no submit event.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like {{domxref("EventTarget.addEventListener", "addEventListener()")}}, or set an event handler property.

js-nolint

addEventListener("submit", (event) => { })

onsubmit = (event) => { }

Event type

A {{domxref("SubmitEvent")}}. Inherits from {{domxref("Event")}}.

Event properties

In addition to the properties listed below, this interface inherits the properties of its parent interface, {{domxref("Event")}}.

{{domxref("SubmitEvent.submitter", "submitter")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}
- : An {{domxref("HTMLElement")}} object which identifies the button or other element which was invoked to trigger the form being submitted.

Examples

This example uses {{domxref("EventTarget.addEventListener()")}} to listen for form submit, and logs the current {{domxref("Event.timeStamp")}} whenever that occurs, then prevents the default action of submitting the form.

HTML

html

<form id="form">
  <label>Test field: <input type="text" /></label>
  


  <button type="submit">Submit form</button>
</form>
<p id="log"></p>

JavaScript

const form = document.getElementById("form");
const log = document.getElementById("log");

function logSubmit(event) {
  log.textContent = `Form Submitted! Timestamp: ${event.timeStamp}`;
  event.preventDefault();
}

form.addEventListener("submit", logSubmit);

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample("Examples", "", "", "", "", "", "", "allow-forms")}}