If you must validate a FORM before it is sent to the server, you will have to depend on the browser to faithfully execute the submit() method of the form object. Most Mozilla 3.x/4.x browsers support this method.

For example we can set up a function called "jsSendForm()" that takes a form object as an argument. So if the FORM element name is "frmOne" we can then call:

jsSendForm(window.document.frmOne)

or, if frmOne is the only form in the document, we alternatively have:

jsSendForm(window.document.forms[0])

or, if frmOne is being called from an event (usually the onClick event) in an element inside frmOne we have:

jsSendForm(this.form)

where jsSendForm() looks like this:

function jsSendForm(vForm) {
    vFrmValid
    //Form validation code goes here.
    //If validation fails, vFrmValid=False
    if (vFrmValid) {
        vForm.submit
        window.document.close
    }
    else { \\\\Do something for invalid data. }
}

One technique is to call this function from the onClick event of the INPUT element. Instead of using an INPUT element of TYPE "submit" we can use the following:

<INPUT
    TYPE=button
    VALUE="Send"
    onCLick="jsSendForm(this.form)">

NOTE: Some browsers (namely some Netscape browsers) will ignore the submit() method of a form object where the FORM elements ACTION property contains "mailto:" protocol. This is done for security reasons.