[javascript] Form Submit Execute JavaScript Best Practice?

I would like to run a JavaScript function when a form is submitted. The issue is that, when the form is submitted, the page is reloaded and the form values are appended to the URL as GET parameters. I would like it to stay on the current page and only run the JavaScript function.

I was wondering what the best practice (or what you do) to avoid having the page reload and parameters be sent.

Attach an event handler to the submit event of the form. Make sure it cancels the default action.

Quirks Mode has a guide to event handlers, but you would probably be better off using a library to simplify the code and iron out the differences between browsers. All the major ones (such as YUI and jQuery) include event handling features, and there is a large collection of tiny event libraries.

Here is how you would do it in YUI 3:

<script src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/3.4.1/build/yui/yui-min.js"></script>
<script>
    YUI().use('event', function (Y) {
        Y.one('form').on('submit', function (e) {
            // Whatever else you want to do goes here
            e.preventDefault();
        });
    });
</script>

Make sure that the server will pick up the slack if the JavaScript fails for any reason.

I know it's a little late for this. But I always thought that the best way to create event listeners is directly from JavaScript. Kind of like not applying inline CSS styles.

function validate(){
    //do stuff
}
function init(){
    document.getElementById('form').onsubmit = validate;
}
window.onload = init;

That way you don't have a bunch of event listeners throughout your HTML.