show thankyou message on submit - css

Question

Hello I'm trying to get my contact form to display a thank you message after the message has been sent.
I looked around but the stuff I find looks more complex than what I think i need.
I think it's something i'm missing about the event listener and how this form works.
Here's my code:
.thanks {
display: none;
}
<div class="form-wrap">
<form class="contact-form" action="https://getsimpleform.com/messages?form_api_token=aa0a1c58e87ea8816ba9ff7d7a71d0ef" method="post">
<!-- all your input fields here.... -->
<div class="name-email">
<input class="contact-field contactform-name" type='text' name='name' placeholder="Name" required/>
<input class="contact-field contact-form-email" type="email:" name="email" placeholder="e-mail" value="" required>
</div>
<textarea class="contact-field" name="message" rows="20" cols="80" placeholder="Your Message" required></textarea>
<input class="contact-field submit" type='submit' value='Send' />
</form>
</div>
<div class="thanks">
<h1>Thanks for the message!</h1>
</div>
<script>
function displayThanks() {
document.querySelector(".thanks").style.display = "block";
document.querySelector(".contact-form").style.display = "none";
}
document.querySelector(".submit").addEventListener("submit", displayThanks)
</script>
I could make it work on click, but that would mean that even if they don't send a message and just click submit they will get thank you (FOR WHAT!?)
Thanks!
M

Answer 1

You are mixing client side logic with server side logic. It's hard to answer your question because we don't know, what the action "action="https://getsimpleform.com/messages?form_api_token=aa0a1c58e87ea8816ba9ff7d7a71d0ef" in your form tag is doing.
It might be usefull to validate the form, before you consider to submit it. You can do this by using the click event of the submit button in combination with preventDefault like this (Just an Example, you could even use RegEx for emails and stuff):
document.querySelector(".submit").addEventListener('click', function(e) {
var userInputName = document.getElementsByName("name")[0].value,
userInputEmail = document.getElementsByName("email")[0].value,
userInputMessage = document.getElementsByName("message")[0].value;
if (userInputName.length > 0 && userInputEmail.length > 0 && userInputMessage.length > 0)
{
document.querySelector(".thanks").style.display = "block";
document.querySelector(".contact-form").style.display = "none";
}
else
{
e.preventDefault();
}
}, false);
I would recommend to use IDs instead of names though, because IDs are unique and don't require a node list or ambiguous jQuery. Than you can use something like this: userInputName = document.getElementById("name").value;
And don't forget to use the right CSS for your logic. Like:
.thanks {display: none;}