How to send a parameter over http request using an anchor tag

Question

I want to send a parameter value over http using <a> tag but I do not want it to be set in the href attribute.

Is there a way to do just that so that I could receive that value on the server side?

Thanks.

Not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. You could either use a hidden field (preferred) or a custom attribute although the html wouldn't technically be valid. — Keith, Apr 10 '12 at 18:13
@Keith & @Zanrok: I just need to send an information to the server about the type of link clicked based on which I need a form to be displayed. Can't use the POST request there because I am using `href` to setting up a form and I would like to use the same URL for processing(POST) request as well. I would like to have a valid HTML for the same to be done. And I don't want that type-of-link-clicked information to be sent to the server in the `href` attribute. — skip, Apr 10 '12 at 18:18
The POST approach should work fine for you if you give the type-of-link form a post variable that doesn't appear in the main form. Then the server can display the form if that variable is present, and otherwise process the form submission. — Russell Zahniser, Apr 10 '12 at 19:02

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '12 at 03:42

Either use JS to submit a (hidden) form.

<form id="foo" method="post" action="servletURL">
    <input type="hidden" name="yourParamName" value="yourParamValue" />
</form>
<a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('foo').submit(); return false;">link</a>

Or use CSS to style the default submit button to look like a link.

<form id="foo" method="post" action="servletURL">
    <input type="hidden" name="yourParamName" value="yourParamValue" />
    <input type="submit" value="link" class="link" />
</form>

with

input[type=submit].link {
    margin: 0;
    border: 0;
    background: transparent;
    color: blue;
    text-decoration: underline;
    cursor: pointer;
    overflow: visible;
}

How to send a parameter over http request using an anchor tag

1 Answers1