An<input type="submit"> element'svalue attribute contains a string which is displayed as the button's label. Buttons do not have a true value otherwise. Thevalue provides theaccessible description for the button.

If you don't specify avalue, the button will have a default label, chosen by the user agent. This label is likely to be something along the lines of "Submit" or "Submit Query." Here's an example of a submit button with a default label in your browser:

<input type="submit" />

In addition to the attributes shared by all<input> elements,submit button inputs support the following attributes.

A string indicating the URL to which to submit the data. This takes precedence over theaction attribute on the<form> element that owns the<input>.

This attribute is also available on<input type="image"> and<button> elements.

A string that identifies the encoding method to use when submitting the form data to the server. There are three permitted values:

application/x-www-form-urlencoded

This, the default value, sends the form data as a string afterpercent-encoding the text using an algorithm such asencodeURI().

multipart/form-data

Uses theFormData API to manage the data, allowing for files to be submitted to the server. Youmust use this encoding type if your form includes any<input> elements oftypefile (<input type="file">).

text/plain

Plain text; mostly useful only for debugging, so you can easily see the data that's to be submitted.

If specified, the value of theformenctype attribute overrides the owning form'senctype attribute.

This attribute is also available on<input type="image"> and<button> elements.

A string indicating the HTTP method to use when submitting the form's data; this value overrides anymethod attribute given on the owning form. Permitted values are:

get

A URL is constructed by starting with the URL given by theformaction oraction attribute, appending a question mark ("?") character, then appending the form's data, encoded as described byformenctype or the form'senctype attribute. This URL is then sent to the server using an HTTPget request. This method works well for forms that contain onlyASCII characters and have no side effects. This is the default value.

post

The form's data is included in the body of the request that is sent to the URL given by theformaction oraction attribute using an HTTPpost method. This method supports complex data and file attachments.

dialog

This method is used to indicate that the button closes the dialog with which the input is associated, and does not transmit the form data at all.

This attribute is also available on<input type="image"> and<button> elements.

A Boolean attribute which, if present, specifies that the form should not be validated before submission to the server. This overrides the value of thenovalidate attribute on the element's owning form.

This attribute is also available on<input type="image"> and<button> elements.

A string which specifies a name or keyword that indicates where to display the response received after submitting the form. The string must be the name of abrowsing context (that is, a tab, window, or<iframe>). A value specified here overrides any target given by thetarget attribute on the<form> that owns this input.

In addition to the actual names of tabs, windows, or inline frames, there are a few special keywords that can be used:

_self

Loads the response into the same browsing context as the one that contains the form. This will replace the current document with the received data. This is the default value used if none is specified.

_blank

Loads the response into a new, unnamed, browsing context. This is typically a new tab in the same window as the current document, but may differ depending on the configuration of theuser agent.

_parent

Loads the response into the parent browsing context of the current one. If there is no parent context, this behaves the same as_self.

_top

Loads the response into the top-level browsing context; this is the browsing context that is the topmost ancestor of the current context. If the current context is the topmost context, this behaves the same as_self.

This attribute is also available on<input type="image"> and<button> elements.

<input type="submit"> buttons are used to submit forms. If you want to create a custom button and then customize the behavior using JavaScript, you need to use<input type="button">, or better still, a<button> element.

If you choose to use<button> elements to create the buttons in your form, keep this in mind: If the<button> is inside a<form>, that button will be treated as the "submit" button. So you should be in the habit of expressly specifying which button is the submit button.

We'll begin by creating a form with a basic submit button:

<form>  <div>    <label for="example">Let's submit some text</label>    <input type="text" name="text" />  </div>  <div>    <input type="submit" value="Send" />  </div></form>

This renders like so:

Try entering some text into the text field, and then submitting the form.

Upon submitting, the data name/value pair gets sent to the server. In this instance, the string will betext=user-text, where "user-text" is the text entered by the user, encoded to preserve special characters. Where and how the data is submitted depends on the configuration of the<form>; seeSending form data for more details.

Keyboard shortcuts, also known as access keys and keyboard equivalents, let the user trigger a button using a key or combination of keys on the keyboard. To add a keyboard shortcut to a submit button — just as you would with any<input> for which it makes sense — you use theaccesskey global attribute.

In this example,s is specified as the access key (you'll need to presss plus the particular modifier keys for your browser/OS combination). In order to avoid conflicts with the user agent's own keyboard shortcuts, different modifier keys are used for access keys than for other shortcuts on the host computer. Seeaccesskey for further details.

Here's the previous example with thes access key added:

<form>  <div>    <label for="example">Let's submit some text</label>    <input type="text" name="text" />  </div>  <div>    <input type="submit" value="Send" accesskey="s" />  </div></form>

For example, in Firefox for Mac, pressingControl-Option-S triggers the Send button, while Chrome on Windows usesAlt+S.

The problem with the above example is that the user will not know what the access key is! This is especially true since the modifiers are typically non-standard to avoid conflicts. When building a site, be sure to provide this information in a way that doesn't interfere with the site design (for example by providing an easily accessible link that points to information on what the site access keys are). Adding a tooltip to the button (using thetitle attribute) can also help, although it's not a complete solution for accessibility purposes.

To disable a submit button, specify thedisabled attribute on it, like so:

<input type="submit" value="Send" disabled />

You can enable and disable buttons at run time by settingdisabled totrue orfalse; in JavaScript this looks likebtn.disabled = true orbtn.disabled = false.

Submit buttons don't participate in constraint validation; they have no real value to be constrained.

We've included basic examples above. There isn't really anything more to say about submit buttons. There's a reason this kind of control is sometimes called a "simple button."

• <input> and theHTMLInputElement interface which implements it.
• Forms and buttons
• HTML forms
• The<button> element