[marklar423]

I had the same thought at first, but the example in the article convinced me. It's something I ran into when I did webdev.

Form tags usually contain other elements - textboxes, checkboxes, etc. The url and method are specified on the form tag and not the button, so if you want a second submit button that goes to a different URL or use a different method, you need to duplicate all the other inputs in a separate form tag with your button.

All of this can be done with scripting, but the point of this proposal is to make that unnecessary.

[minitech]

The `formaction` and `formmethod` attributes already exist. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/...

[wky]

Additionally, the proposal of button actions is for the opposite purpose, when you want to avoid sending the form data when the button is pressed.

[marklar423]

I stand corrected, thanks for pointing it out. I suppose then I'm back to not seeing the utility of the proposal over form tags.

[zerocrates]

I guess the distinction would be that in the formaction/formmethod case you'll also submit all the other form data, while the button action will just be an empty body.

An extra blank form on the page and the form attribute on the button can work around that, and at that point the argument would basically be: this is super clunky.

[danaris]

Or

you can have the backend at the first URL detect which action should be taken based on which button was pressed, and act accordingly—even up to passing control off entirely to a different route/method.