Disable Submit Button Upon Form Submission

By  on  

Multiple clicks on a "Submit" button can cause duplicate processing if your programming is slow or the user's connection is lagging. Duplicate processing can include duplicate database records, multiple emails, or different types of errors. JavaScript provides an easy way to disable the multiple submission of a form once the form has been submitted.

The Code

In the HTML, use the following "onsubmit" information:

It's important to trigger the even on form submission -- not everyone clicks the "submit" button. You will also need to give your submit button the submit_button ID attribute.

Recent Features

  • By
    Responsive Images: The Ultimate Guide

    Chances are that any Web designers using our Ghostlab browser testing app, which allows seamless testing across all devices simultaneously, will have worked with responsive design in some shape or form. And as today's websites and devices become ever more varied, a plethora of responsive images...

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Reverse Element Order with CSS Flexbox

    CSS is becoming more and more powerful these days, almost to the point where the order of HTML elements output to the page no longer matters from a display standpoint -- CSS lets you do so much that almost any layout, large or small, is possible.  Semantics...

  • By
    Do / Undo Functionality with MooTools

    We all know that do/undo functionality is a God send for word processing apps. I've used those terms so often that I think of JavaScript actions in terms of "do" an "undo." I've put together a proof of concept Do/Undo class with MooTools. The MooTools...

Discussion

  1. Dave Doyle

    As an aside, if you’re also using any javascript validation, disable the submit button only after you’ve passed the validation tests.

    Also, if the form is output programattically and the results stored in a DB, you can incorporated a unique hidden value in the form and redirect to an error page on duplicate submission detection.

  2. Great tips (and name) Dave!

    I’ve never been a fan of “disabling” elements on a website, but if it can save a developer lots of cleanup in the long run, I say do it.

  3. Hugo

    How would you write a code to “redirect to an error page on duplicate submission detection.”

  4. Hugo

    oh, and my middle name is David. It may not be Dave but it is pretty close. :D

  5. thanks for the tip… might also be a good idea to apply some sort of visual display so your users know the server is working. :)

  6. Rohini

    Hi David,

    I’m having a really hard time trying to disable a submit (IMAGE) button when the page is submitted in APEX 3.2.
    I cannot get the SUBMIT button to disable itself. Somehow this only works on HTML Buttons rather than IMAGES from CSS Templates.
    Would appreciate it if you could suggest an alternative.
    Thanks.

  7. Great way of prevention. Thanks a lot. I just implemented it on one of my websites.

  8. Ava

    Does anyone have a unit test code for testing the submit button disabled when click it?

  9. roshan

    Thank boss..u saved my time

  10. manoj

    i can’t disable the submit button because i have some validation before page submit.if the validation failed the button is permanently disabled please some one assist

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!