[javascript] Make a link use POST instead of GET

I'm not sure if this is even possible. But I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a hyperlink pass some variables and use POST (like a form) as opposed to GET.

HTML + JQuery: A link that submits a hidden form with POST.

Since I spent a lot of time to understand all these answers, and since all of them have some interesting details, here is the combined version that finally worked for me and which I prefer for its simplicity.

My approach is again to create a hidden form and to submit it by clicking a link somewhere else in the page. It doesn't matter where in the body of the page the form will be placed.

The code for the form:

<form id="myHiddenFormId" action="myAction.php" method="post" style="display: none">
  <input type="hidden" name="myParameterName" value="myParameterValue">
</form>

Description:

The display: none hides the form. You can alternatively put it in a div or another element and set the display: none on the element.

The type="hidden" will create an fild that will not be shown but its data will be transmitted to the action eitherways (see W3C). I understand that this is the simplest input type.

The code for the link:

<a href="" onclick="$('#myHiddenFormId').submit(); return false;" title="My link title">My link text</a>

Description:

The empty href just targets the same page. But it doesn't really matter in this case since the return false will stop the browser from following the link. You may want to change this behavior of course. In my specific case, the action contained a redirection at the end.

The onclick was used to avoid using href="javascript:..." as noted by mplungjan. The $('#myHiddenFormId').submit(); was used to submit the form (instead of defining a function, since the code is very small).

This link will look exactly like any other <a> element. You can actually use any other element instead of the <a> (for example a <span> or an image).

I suggest a more dynamic approach, without html coding into the page, keep it strictly JS:

$("a.AS-POST").on('click', e => {
  e.preventDefault()
  let frm = document.createElement('FORM')
  frm.id='frm_'+Math.random()
  frm.method='POST'
  frm.action=e.target.href
  document.body.appendChild(frm)
  frm.submit()
})

Another working example, using similar approach posted : create a html form, use javascript to simulate the post. This does 2 things : post data to a new page and open it in a new window/tab.

HTML

<form name='myForm' target="_blank" action='newpage.html' method='post'>
<input type="hidden" name="thisIsTheParameterName" value="testDataToBePosted"/>
</form>

JavaScript

document.forms["myForm"].submit();

Instead using javascript, you could also use a label sending a hidden form. Very simple and small solution. The label can be anywhere in your html.

<form style="display: none" action="postUrl" method="post">_x000D_
  <button type="submit" id="button_to_link"> </button>_x000D_
</form>_x000D_
<label style="text-decoration: underline" for="button_to_link">  link that posts </label>

You can use javascript functions. JQuery has a nice post function built in if you decide to use it:

JQuery Post

<script language="javascript"> 

   function DoPost(){
      $.post("WhateverPage.php", { name: "John", time: "2pm" } );  //Your values here..
   }

</script>

<a href="javascript:DoPost()">Click Here</A> 

You don't need JavaScript for this. Just wanted to make that clear, since as of the time this answer was posted, all of the answers to this question involve the use of JavaScript in some way or another.

You can do this rather easily with pure HTML and CSS by creating a form with hidden fields containing the data you want to submit, then styling the submit button of the form to look like a link.

For example:

.inline {_x000D_
  display: inline;_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
.link-button {_x000D_
  background: none;_x000D_
  border: none;_x000D_
  color: blue;_x000D_
  text-decoration: underline;_x000D_
  cursor: pointer;_x000D_
  font-size: 1em;_x000D_
  font-family: serif;_x000D_
}_x000D_
.link-button:focus {_x000D_
  outline: none;_x000D_
}_x000D_
.link-button:active {_x000D_
  color:red;_x000D_
}

<a href="some_page">This is a regular link</a>_x000D_
_x000D_
<form method="post" action="some_page" class="inline">_x000D_
  <input type="hidden" name="extra_submit_param" value="extra_submit_value">_x000D_
  <button type="submit" name="submit_param" value="submit_value" class="link-button">_x000D_
    This is a link that sends a POST request_x000D_
  </button>_x000D_
</form>

The exact CSS you use may vary depending on how regular links on your site are styled.

You can use this jQuery function

function makePostRequest(url, data) {
    var jForm = $('<form></form>');
    jForm.attr('action', url);
    jForm.attr('method', 'post');
    for (name in data) {
        var jInput = $("<input>");
        jInput.attr('name', name);
        jInput.attr('value', data[name]);
        jForm.append(jInput);
    }
    jForm.submit();
}

Here is an example in jsFiddle (http://jsfiddle.net/S7zUm/)

Check this it will help you

$().redirect('test.php', {'a': 'value1', 'b': 'value2'});

As mentioned in many posts, this is not directly possible, but an easy and successful way is as follows: First, we put a form in the body of our html page, which does not have any buttons for the submit, and also its inputs are hidden. Then we use a javascript function to get the data and ,send the form. One of the advantages of this method is to redirect to other pages, which depends on the server-side code. The code is as follows: and now in anywhere you need an to be in "POST" method:

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
function post_link(data){

    $('#post_form').find('#form_input').val(data);
    $('#post_form').submit();
};
</script>

   <form id="post_form" action="anywhere/you/want/" method="POST">
 {% csrf_token %}
    <input id="form_input" type="hidden" value="" name="form_input">
</form>

<a href="javascript:{}" onclick="javascript:post_link('data');">post link is ready</a>

This is an old question, but none of the answers satisfy the request in-full. So I'm adding another answer.

The requested code, as I understand, should make only one change to the way normal hyperlinks work: the POST method should be used instead of GET. The immediate implications would be:

1. When the link is clicked we should reload the tab to the url of the href
2. As the method is POST, we should have no query string in the URL of the target page we load
3. That page should receive the data in parameters (names and value) by POST

I am using jquery here, but this could be done with native apis (harder and longer of course).

<html>
<head>
    <script src="path/to/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script>
        $(document).ready(function() {

            $("a.post").click(function(e) {
                e.stopPropagation();
                e.preventDefault();
                var href = this.href;
                var parts = href.split('?');
                var url = parts[0];
                var params = parts[1].split('&');
                var pp, inputs = '';
                for(var i = 0, n = params.length; i < n; i++) {
                    pp = params[i].split('=');
                    inputs += '<input type="hidden" name="' + pp[0] + '" value="' + pp[1] + '" />';
                }
                $("body").append('<form action="'+url+'" method="post" id="poster">'+inputs+'</form>');
                $("#poster").submit();
            });
        });
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <a class="post" href="reflector.php?color=blue&weight=340&model=x-12&price=14.800">Post it!</a><br/>
    <a href="reflector.php?color=blue&weight=340&model=x-12&price=14.800">Normal link</a>
</body>
</html>

And to see the result, save the following as reflector.php in the same directory you have the above saved.

<h2>Get</h2>
<pre>
<?php print_r($_GET); ?>
</pre>

<h2>Post</h2>
<pre>
<?php print_r($_POST); ?>
</pre>