Angular JS - Cancel button on form suppress form submission

Issue

Consider a form with three buttons:

<form ng-submit="updateUser()">
  <div>Name <input type="text" ng-model="userToEdit.name" /></div>
  <div>
    <button class="btn btn-primary" ng-click="updateUser()">Save</button>
    <button class="btn" ng-click="cancelEdit()">Cancel</button>
    <button class="btn btn-danger" ng-click="deleteUser(userToEdit)"><i class="icon-trash"></i> Delete</button>
  </div>
</form>

When I click cancel, cancelEdit() is being called, then updateUser() is being called. I don't want the updateUser() method to be called. Is there a way to suppress this form submission (preferebly wtihout jQuery?)

Note: I'd still like to be able to hit enter and default to the Save action.

Solution

There is a type attribute for the <button> which defaults to submit - see this spec. Thus every button in your form is a submit button. You need to specify the button type for buttons which should not trigger the form submission, like this:

<form ng-submit="updateUser()">
  <div>Name <input type="text" ng-model="userToEdit.name" /></div>
  <div>
    <button class="btn btn-primary">Save</button>
    <button type="button" class="btn" ng-click="cancelEdit()">Cancel</button>
    <button type="button" class="btn btn-danger" ng-click="deleteUser(userToEdit)"><i class="icon-trash"></i> Delete</button>
  </div>
</form>

And also no need to put the submit action to both ng-click and ng-submit - it will trigger double submit. I would advise to use ng-submit because it catches all ways of form submission, like pressing ENTER and not only clicking on submit button.

Answered By - Shimon Rachlenko