Shouldn't prevent default on forms.

[fabiocarneiro]

Since action="" is invalid HTML5 markup, and Angular.js prevents the default submit when action attribute is not set, there is no way of using the document address with valid html5 markup when using angular.

Please create a property that must be set on the forms to enable this preventDefault behavior.

[Narretz]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do actually. Can you elaborate?

[fabiocarneiro]

I'm trying to submit the form to the document address. Angular adds a preventDefault unless the form has a empty string in action and the form is not submited, which makes it impossible to use the valid markup.

valid markup

<form>
</form>

invalid markup

<form action="">
</form>

[Narretz]

Ah okay I see. Well, that's inconvenient. Does it work, for purpose of validation and submission, if you put in a # into the action property?

[gkalpak]

There is an easy work-around if anyone is interested:

Since the condition for preventing the default form action is $attrs not having an action property, you can manually put an action property on the Attributes object, without adding an action attribute on the element.

E.g. to have this work-around automatically applied on all forms with a method attribute:

.directive('method', function () {
  return {
    priority: 1,   // To run before the default `form` directive
    restrict: 'A',
    compile: function (_, tAttrs) { tAttrs.action = undefined; }
  };
})

Demo

[gkalpak]

Of course, @Narretz's suggestion of having action="#" (or even action="?") also works, but messes with your URL, so might not be appropriate for some usecases.

[fabiocarneiro]

if you put in a # into the action property?

Actually, the HTML5 specification says that:

The action and formaction content attributes, if specified, must have a value that is a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

action="#" and action="?" and action="" are all invalid markup

You must either set a valid url, or do not use the attribute at all.

Suggested solutions:

• do not add preventDefault on forms with no action set
• create a angular form attribute, so only form with this attribute set will be handled by angular consequently have preventDefault run on submit.

[Narretz]

So basically the problem is that a HTML validator will say that the document is invalid, yes?
I rather not make "no prevent default" the default behavior, because most people don't use html form submission with angular, but ajax requests. Suggestion: allow default form submission behavior even if no action attribute is set.