Playframework form and two submit buttons

Question

I had form for editing order but I had to add button for removing order. Now I have form with two submit buttons:

@helper.form(routes.Order.editOrder,'class -> "form-horizontal") {
   @helper.inputText(
      PlayMagicForJava.javaFieldtoScalaField(editOrderForm("date")),
      '_label -> "Date:",
      '_help -> ""
   )
   @helper.inputText(
      PlayMagicForJava.javaFieldtoScalaField(editOrderForm("place_from")),
      '_label -> "From:",
      '_help -> ""
   )
   <button type="submit" name="edit" id="edit" class="btn btn-primary">Edit Order</button>
   <button type="submit" name="remove" id="remove" value="remove" class="btn">Remove order</button>
}

My function in controler for form just for editing:

public static Result editOrder(){
 Order user = User.findByEmail(session("email"));
 Form<Order> editOrderFormFilled = editOrderForm.bindFromRequest();
 Order order = Order.findByID(editOrderFormFilled.get().id);
     if(editOrderFormFilled.hasErrors()) {
         return badRequest();
     }
     else if(user.id != order.created_by){
         return badRequest();
     }else{
        return OK();
     }
 }

How can I handle which button was submited?

An HTML form cannot have 2 submit buttons. You could solve this problem with Javascript (change the action-url in "onsubmit" callback for exemple). It's not especially a Play2 concern. — Julien Lafont, Dec 23 '12 at 00:03
I think that I have used 2 submit buttons in PHP yet. For example this should works for PHP[link](http://blog.theonlytutorials.com/multiple-submit-button-in-a-single-form-with-php/) — Marek Čačko, Dec 23 '12 at 00:22
Ok, it's possible :) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/942772/html-form-with-two-submit-buttons-and-two-target-attributes Sorry for my mistake ! I will check for Play2 — Julien Lafont, Dec 23 '12 at 00:35

Julien Lafont · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-25T09:08:38.693

The value property of the selected button is sent to the server as any other fields. So, inside your controller, you can access this value in the request body and decide what to do.

Template:

<button type="submit" name="action" value="edit">Edit order</button>
<button type="submit" name="action" value="remove">Remove order</button>

Controller:

public static Result myAction() {
  String[] postAction = request().body().asFormUrlEncoded().get("action");
  if (postAction == null || postAction.length == 0) {
    return badRequest("You must provide a valid action");
  } else {
    String action = postAction[0];
    if ("edit".equals(action)) {
      return edit(request());
    } else if ("remove".equals(action)) {
      return remove(request());
    } else {
      return badRequest("This action is not allowed");
    }
  }
}

private static Result remove(Request request) {
  // TODO
  return ok("implement your business here");
}

private static Result edit(Request request) {
  // TODO
  return ok("implement your business here");
}

I did the same, but for me action is empty(not null though)! any clues? — Hossein, Mar 04 '13 at 22:41

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

10

To complemente Julien Lafont's answer, here is what you could do in a Scala Controller:

def handle = Action { implicit request => 
  request.body.asFormUrlEncoded.get("action").headOption match {
    case Some("edit") => Ok("Clicked edit")
    case Some("remove") => Ok("Clicked remove")
    case _ => BadRequest("This action is not allowed")
  }
}

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

1
1

answered Jun 20 '13 at 08:03

OlivierBlanvillain

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`request.body.asFormUrlEncoded.get("submit").headOption` actually worked for me – jesus g_force Harris Dec 18 '17 at 16:54
request.body.asFormUrlEncoded was empty in my own case, but the form.data contains the value. – keni Jan 09 '18 at 15:16

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

To complement Julien Lafont's and OlivierBlanvillain's answer, in the case of an form that validates with an error. The action stays the same if that form just gets returned. So filtering out that action gives a correct action the next time.

  val postAction: String = request.body.asFormUrlEncoded.get("action").head

  // bind the form request.
  val bindFromRequest: Form[CaseClass] = CaseOriginalForm.bindFromRequest
  bindFromRequest.fold(
    formWithErrors => {
      // filter out the action button data (otherwise the first action comes back)
      val filterNot: Map[String, String] = formWithErrors.data.filterNot(f => f._1 == "action")
      val formWithErrors2= CaseOriginalForm.bind(filterNot)
      BadRequest(views.html.FormPage(formWithErrors2))
    },
    contact => {
        Ok( "Succes page " + postAction)
    }
  )

Playframework form and two submit buttons

3 Answers3