Is nested <form> possible?

Question

in a content page of an asp.net web page, i would like to include the "paypal" button "Pay Now".

So, i've a master page, and a content page. In my content page i copy-paste paypal code. In particular i use a "modalpopupextender" to permit my user to buy the object. The problem is... it not work. So my hypotheses are:

1. I'm not sure, but i think i can't use a nested <form action>
2. If not the first, maybe i can't use a <form action> into a modal popup ?

someone can suggest me an "elegant" solutions to solve this ? Thank you ...

EDIT: in particular, what i'm trying to do is to permit to sell from a website. I've a master page, and a content page. Obviously in master page i've the classical "form action" . Then i'm gone to paypal and got this code: "

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<table>
<tr><td>
    <input type="hidden" name="on0" value="Annuncio Premium">Annuncio Premium
</td></tr>
<tr><td>
    <select name="os0">
        <option value="Premium 1">Premium 1 €1,00</option>
    </select>
</td></tr>
</table>
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="EUR">
<input type="hidden" name="encrypted" value="-----BEGIN ">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/it_IT/IT/i/btn/btn_paynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - Il sistema di pagamento online più facile e sicuro!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/it_IT/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>

So i've pasted it into my content page ... as it... without changing. In particular i've pasted it, into a panel, that will show whith a "modalpopupextender". It works. But what it not work is when i click the paypal "Buy Now" button. My web page don't redirect to paypal, modalpopup disappears and nothing happens.

Answer 1

I had this exact issue too and couldn't believe that PayPal had not provided some sort of solution for .NET developers!!

Here is how I solved it:

<asp:ImageButton ID="btnPayNow" runat="server" ImageUrl="myPayPalButton.jpg" 
 PostBackUrl="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" OnClick="btnPayNow_Click"/>

Use an ImageButton or normal button and simply remove the form tags for the PayPal code, leave in the hidden input fields and the data will be posted to the PayPal url!

Nice and easy :)

Ps. The method 'btnPayNow_Click()' does nothing, signature exists but there is no logic in the code I have.

Answer 2

Dal's answer is correct! (not taking credit with my answer)

I had a similar issue in ASP.NET (4.0) when trying to submit data to SagePay (same as PayPal form posting). I was writing the form fields in dynamically using panels in the code-behind using

Dim Panel As New Panel
Panel.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("My <input> controls HTML")) '1 control.add per <input> control.
MyDiv.Controls.Add(Panel)

I was writing the whole < form> dynamically also, so when it came to debugging I received no warnings regarding the issue that my entire Site.Master is within a - this is not visible from a .aspx page using the master as a template! It was quite frustrating... Until I read that you cannot have a nested < form>... There are only two alternatives to this:

1) move the form details outside the first that is within my Site.Master from the .aspx page itself. (I didn't like the idea of this, messy messy!)

2) create another control that is NOT a to post my data.

---

I chose the latter!

<asp:Button id="btn_payment" value="Proceed to Payment" Text="Proceed to Payment" runat="server"  PostBackUrl="https://test.sagepay.com/gateway/service/vspform-register.vsp" />

The button posted to SagePay, took my dynamically generated fields (Called from the .aspx page) and as they were already within the from my Site.Master - all worked well! - I hope this helps anyone using dynamically generated HTML with forms.

Answer 3

You are right in your first hypothese, you can't have nested form tags in a page.

You just have to put the code for the popup outside the form, you can have any number of forms in the page as long as they are not nested.

Answer 4

If I understand the question correctly, you are trying to create a dynamic HTML popup window which contains a PayPal form. You are having problems because the popup contains a form, but the HTML for the popup is already contained within a form.

If the problem you are experiencing is what I described above, the solution is fairly simple. You need to move all of the HTML for the popup outside of the exiting form element. If you are using CSS to properly lay out your site, it should be possible to display your dynamic popup wherever you need to on the page using relative or absolute positioning. The HTML for the popup need not be contained within another form. It may also be possible (perhaps even necessary) to put the contents of the popup into an iframe, which can be submitted entirely independently from the rest of the page. The semantics of how your popup works would depend on how you need your page to function.

So, to be clear...it is not possible to nest form elements. However, it is also not necessary to accomplish your needs.

EDIT:

To improve the answer above in light of the updated question. You can have multiple content panels on a master page. It should be entirely possible to create another content panel that is outside of your form element in your master page...and place your modal popup inside of this alternative content panel. My above answer would then still apply, as you no longer have nested forms.

Answer 5

You are quite correct, in that you cannot nest <form>s.

Nor can you use the form action to create a popup - the action attribute is the url to which the form posts to.

You can, however, have many <form>s on the page, so long as they are not nested. Perhaps that will solve you issue.

Can you please describe exactly what you are trying to achieve? It is not clear from your question what the problem is.