To simplify the form building for users who know HTML, we decided to use the out of the box HTML Form Web Part.  That web part has some limitations.  Specifically, you cannot add or embed another <form> tag to the source code. Without the ability to specify the OnSubmit for the form, there has to be another way to indicate the method and action on the submit of the form.

After searching Google, I can upon this CodePlex project: “SharePoint form submit in content editor web part” and subsequent version 2, which handles the parameters much nicer.

I included the javascript file in my feature so that users could reference it from their HTML.  In the end, the form looks something like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/Sohema/jquery.SharePointFormSubmit.js"></script>

<div id="divIdForm" class="mode_edit balloon">
 
    <input type=hidden name="myId" value="SOHEMA">
    <input type=hidden name="retURL" value="https://jakejacobsen.net/">

    <label for="first_name">First Name</label><input  id="first_name" maxlength="40" name="first_name" size="20" type="text" /><br>
    <label for="last_name">Last Name</label><input  id="last_name" maxlength="80" name="last_name" size="20" type="text" /><br>
    <label for="email">Email</label><input  id="email" maxlength="80" name="email" size="20" type="text" /><br>

    I think this is so:<select id="543645" name="llp" title="I think this is so">
    <option value="">-None-</option>
    <option value="cool">Cool</option>
    <option value="radical">Radical</option>
    <option value="meatball">Meatball</option>
    </select><br>

    <button id="idButton" type="button" class="btn_capsule btn_120 gn align_right" onclick="jQuery().SharePointFormSubmit(
        {
              'element':'#divIdForm', 
              'frmMethod':'post', 
              'frmAction': 'https://test.jakejacobsen.net/servlet/servlet.LLP?encoding=UTF-8',
              'frmTarget':'_self',
              'wpPrefix':'WPQ7'
        })">Submit
    </button>
</div>

There was a small problem with the HTML.  SharePoint handles multiple web parts on a page by prepending the field names with “WPQ#”, where # is some number.  This is fine until the service you are posting to expects the field names to be a specific name. By modifying the jquery, I update the field names using these lines of code in the file jquery.SharePointFormSubmit.js:

var wpPrefix = arr[‘wpPrefix’];

/*…*/

newName = $(this).attr(‘name’).replace(wpPrefix, "");

e.attr(‘name’, newName);

The wpPrefix is the prefix of the web part that is set by SharePoint on that particular page.  This can be found by viewing the page source of the HTML Form Web Part.  In my case, it was “WPQ7.”

The field names are updated on the submit. It is a good idea to view what the form is passing using some HTTP tools.  My favorite is FireFox with the Firebug and Live HTTP Headers Add-Ons.

And there you have it.