[javascript] Simulating Button click in javascript

The reason your code isn't working the way you would expect is because this line:

<button type="button" value="submit" onClick="document.getElementById("datepicker").click()">submit </button>

should be changed to:

<button type="button" value="submit" onClick="document.getElementById('datepicker').focus()">submit </button>

There are two things to notice here:

1: The "s around datepicker have been changed to 's so that they do not interfere with the quotes surrounding the onclick event.

2: The click() has been changed to focus() to activate the datepicker calendar. When the button is pressed.

Now, this fixes your issue...but I do agree with the other posts that using jQuery to access the DOM element and trigger the event is the better way to go. Since you're already doing this for the jQuery datapicker plugin via <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.8.3.js"></script>, this should not be a problem.

Inline events are not recommended.