HTML form submit: open PHP in invisible browser tab

Question

I am writing an HTML application that passes a bunch of form elements along to a PHP script, that will run a Python script using those values.

The form element in my page looks like:

<form id="main-input" action="shell.php" method="post" target="_blank">

This opens a new tab, with the PHP script inside. It is an otherwise blank page, with no text on it (since there is asynchronous data display).

Since I do not want the user to mistakenly close this tab (since it would stop script execution) and also since it could cause other confusion, is there a way to make the new browser tab invisible, but still active, using HTML?

More to the point, is there a way to have an invisible broswer tab?

Answer 1

Ehm, just have an invisible iframe and post to it with form target. It is not really an invisible browser tab, yet the most close you get to it - maybe an inline browser tab :)

<form id="main-input" action="shell.php" method="post" target="anyname"></form>
<iframe name = 'anyname' src = 'blubb.php' style = 'display: none'></iframe>

No need for AJAX so far and the nearest to your idea as possible.

Answer 2

Answer: No, there's no way that I know of to make an invisible browser tab (for security and annoyance reasons).

Suggestion: Instead of posting to another tab, you should submit a Post using ajax instead. Override the normal submit action of the form...

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=override%20submit%20form&es_th=1

... and then proceed to gather the form values and compile a Post request. Here's a jQuery reference to using Ajax... http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/jquery_ajax_get_post.asp

Here's a more general JavaScript reference from W3 Schools: http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/ajax_xmlhttprequest_send.asp

Answer 3

To answer your question, No you cannot have an invisible browser tag.