How to distinguish between javascript submit and manually by clicking submit

Question

how to distinguish javascript triggered submit and manually click submit form
code example below

function myfunction() { document.getElementById("id_searchform").submit(); return true; } 

the form:

 <div class='row'> <div class='col-md-4'> <div class='clszipcode' ><span>Enter Zipcode</span></div> </div> <div class='col-md-4'> <div class='clstxtzipcode' ><input type="text" name="zip_code" id="txtZipcode"></div> </div> <div class='col-md-4'> <div class='clsbtnzip' ><input type="submit" name="submit" id="btnSearch" value="Search" class="button_example" ></div> </div> </div> <a href="#" onclick="return myfunction();" >click to submit</a> 

Answer 1

Let me see if I understand:

• You want to determine if the user clicked the link to submit the form.
• You want to determine if the user clicked the submit button to submit the form.
• You have another function called validate() that will somehow use this information.

If so, consider using a variable to save if the link was clicked before running the form to submit.

• Initialize the global variable wasClicked to false
• When clicking a link, set wasClicked to true
• The trigger wasClicked form after wasClicked set.
• Run validate() when submitting the form
• Check if(wasClicked){...} in validate()

Here is a working example