用户提交表单之前如何访问text_field的内容

Question

I have a form with a single text_field_tag . This form appears all over, living inside the application layout. I use params[:controller] to set the url_for_options. Depending on which page the user uses this text_field_tag on, the function will differ.

The logic is then held inside the create action of the numerous controllers that use this search form.

If the page that the user searches on isn't one of the specified controllers I have preset, it currently defaults to one. I want to be able to change the default controller used depending on the contents of the text_field_tag .

So if the user enters an IP address, I will route them to page x. If the user enters an email address, I will route them to page y.

My question is, how can I check to see what the user has entered either before they hit submit, or after they hit submit, but before I set the url_for_options?

I have a an if/elsif/else statement handling the url_for_options inside my form partial. Inside the else statement, I set a default search route which sets the url_for_options. I'd basically like a way to, inside the else block, check if the text_field_tag is a an IP versus an email address (I can do the actual checking with regex, and don't need help with that). But my problem is that I can't find a way to see inside the text_field_tag until I've already submitted the form, and I'm not sure where I can put the logic to check the insides of the text_field_tag and then redirect them to the desired page.

Answer 1

You can specify onsubmit in the form tag to run a custom JS function for this.

IE

<form onsubmit="setURL()" ...>

When the user submits the form, it will call the setURL() function first. From there you could use JS or jQuery to set the action to a specific URL or page based on the input value.