I created a $.form(url[, data[, method = 'POST']]) function which creates a hidden form, populates it with the specified data and attaches it to the <body>. Here are some examples:
$.form('/index')
<form action="/index" method="POST"></form>
$.form('/new', { title: 'Hello World', body: 'Foo Bar' })
<form action="/index" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="title" value="Hello World" />
<input type="hidden" name="body" value="Foo Bar" />
</form>
$.form('/info', { userIds: [1, 2, 3, 4] }, 'GET')
<form action="/info" method="GET">
<input type="hidden" name="userIds[]" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="userIds[]" value="2" />
<input type="hidden" name="userIds[]" value="3" />
<input type="hidden" name="userIds[]" value="4" />
</form>
$.form('/profile', { sender: { first: 'John', last: 'Smith', postIds: null },
receiver: { first: 'Foo', last: 'Bar', postIds: [1, 2] } })
<form action="/profile" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="sender[first]" value="John">
<input type="hidden" name="sender[last]" value="Smith">
<input type="hidden" name="receiver[first]" value="John">
<input type="hidden" name="receiver[last]" value="Smith">
<input type="hidden" name="receiver[postIds][]" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="receiver[postIds][]" value="2">
</form>
With jQuery's .submit() method you can create and submit a form with a simple expression:
$.form('http://stackoverflow.com/search', { q: '[ajax]' }, 'GET').submit();
Here's the function definition:
jQuery(function($) { $.extend({
form: function(url, data, method) {
if (method == null) method = 'POST';
if (data == null) data = {};
var form = $('<form>').attr({
method: method,
action: url
}).css({
display: 'none'
});
var addData = function(name, data) {
if ($.isArray(data)) {
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
var value = data[i];
addData(name + '[]', value);
}
} else if (typeof data === 'object') {
for (var key in data) {
if (data.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
addData(name + '[' + key + ']', data[key]);
}
}
} else if (data != null) {
form.append($('<input>').attr({
type: 'hidden',
name: String(name),
value: String(data)
}));
}
};
for (var key in data) {
if (data.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
addData(key, data[key]);
}
}
return form.appendTo('body');
}
}); });
