href hyperlinks as POST - php

Question

I'm wondering which is the best way to map <a href=...></a> hyperlinks performing a HTTP GET to perform a HTTP POST (I'd like to avoid passing all variables in the URL)? For instance, the 2 hrefs below. Furthermore, I would like also to get rid of the submit button and use a regular <a href=...></a> hyperlink. Any suggestions?
<form action="test.php?action=update" method="post" id="cart">
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="test.php?action=delete&id=<?php echo $id ?>" class="r">
remove
</a>
</td>
<td>
add
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
...
</tr>
</table>
<div> <button type="submit">Update</button> </div>
</form>

Answer 1

I'd suggest using jQuery.post and click. When the link is clicked, submit the data via something like this
$('.r').on('click', function() {
$.post('test.php', {key:'value', key2:'value2'}, function(data) {
//error check here
});
return false;
});

Answer 2

As far as i know you can't perform any POST requests with links. You can make your GET requests with links and php as a fallback for users with javascript disabled and for those who have javascript enabled cancel default behavior for links with javascript and make with ajax your POST request with help of AJAX.
for example:
<a class="submit" href="hallo.html?hello=world&test=yes">Test</a>
and js(i used jquery) would be:
$('.submit').click(function(){
var urlPairs = this.href.split('?')[1].split('&'),
total = urlPairs.length,
current = [],
data = {};
for(;total;) {
current = urlPairs[--total].split('=');
data[current[0]] = current[1];
}
$.post('test.php', data);
return false;
});
​
you could also write your POST function other for more info check jQuery post function doc
P.S. I wounder, if you are using FORM any way why wouldn't you use submit button, is it because of CSS styling? You could style it the same way like any other element(with some tweaks in some browsers).

Answer 3

You can keep the input tags as hidden in your form to submit them as POST.
<td>remove</td>
<td>add</td>
Rewrite the above using two forms, having <input type="hidden" name="id />
and buttons <input type="button" name="delete" />
etc..
if you run print_r($_POST) in your action script. You'll get a list of the buttons and the values of the hidden fields. Now, you can write conditions for the actions to run. I didn't write complete code here, just passing the idea.
Edit: See the example below.
<form method="post" id="cart">
<table>
<input type="hidden" name="id" value='some value' />
<input type="submit" name="action" value="delete" />
<input type="submit" name="action" value="add" />
</tr>
<tr>
...
</tr>
</table>
<div><button type="submit">Update</button></div>
</form>
<?php print_r($_POST); ?>