Prevent Early Form Submission by Hijacking the Enter Key
A customer asked me to create a timecard form a few years ago. Everything with the form worked great but users would mistakenly press the enter key before their form was completed. They asked that I make the enter key move the cursor to the next input instead of submitting the form. This is how I'd do that using MooTools JavaScript.
The MooTools JavaScript
var inputs = $$('input.hijack');
$each(inputs,function(el,i) {
el.addEvent('keypress',function(e) {
if(e.key == 'enter') {
e.stop();
if(inputs[i+1]) { inputs[i+1].focus(); }
//last one?
if(i == inputs.length-1) { $('submit-button').focus(); }
}
});
});
When the customer hits the enter key, the cursor simply appears in the next input.
While I certainly wouldn't recommend this for every form, it definitely suited this customer's needs.
![How to Create a RetroPie on Raspberry Pi – Graphical Guide]()
Today we get to play amazing games on our super powered game consoles, PCs, VR headsets, and even mobile devices. While I enjoy playing new games these days, I do long for the retro gaming systems I had when I was a kid: the original Nintendo...
![Write Better JavaScript with Promises]()
You've probably heard the talk around the water cooler about how promises are the future. All of the cool kids are using them, but you don't see what makes them so special. Can't you just use a callback? What's the big deal? In this article, we'll...
![Sexy Album Art with MooTools or jQuery]()
The way that album information displays is usually insanely boring. Music is supposed to be fun and moving, right? Luckily MooTools and jQuery allow us to communicate that creativity on the web.
The XHTML
A few structure DIVs and the album information.
The CSS
The CSS...
![HTML5 Context Menus]()
One of the hidden gems within the HTML5 spec is context menus. The HTML5 context menu spec allows developers to create custom context menus for given blocks within simple menu and menuitem elements. The menu information lives right within the page so...
Awesome!
Outstanding little clip…one I can put into use almost immediately!
Agreed! Excellent and well executed idea. As you say, probably not for all forms — and it might be useful to provide some education with respect to the tab key which is for all forms — but useful for critical processes that must not be interrupted. Well done.
How about the TAB key?