# I must be stupid-- JavaScript help
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 29, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513 "2001-09-29T20:12:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/1 "2001-09-29T20:12:58Z")
I made a simple frameset for browsing where one frame has a list of ampersand HTML characters and a form whose code you see below. All I want to do is hit the submit button and have it tell the other frame to open the damn URL. for some reason it looks for the url I type in the textbox _on my local hard drive_, even though I explicitly type out “http://” and so on. (the other frame’s name is “theBrowser” for clarity…
```auto
```
Ok, why won’t this open the url I type into the text box?
I even tried not overriding the submit method but making the input type be just a button whose “onClick” method was to call the “getURL()” function.
Ack! So friggin’ simple but I am totally lost.
---
### Author:  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2001, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/2 "2001-09-29T20:14:21Z")
Ok, THAT was weird… my body tag was empty when I typed it (just copied and pasted from my text editor, actually), and look at what the [\*\*code] function put in.
Strange.
---
### Author:  [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2001, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/3 "2001-09-29T20:32:08Z")
Try this:
```auto
parent.theBrowser.location.href = theURL;
```
Or, alternatively, using the index value for the target frame:
```auto
parent.frames[1].location.href = theURL;
```
BTW, this requires the “http://” on the front of the URL. You could make it a little more robust by checking the input to see if it had the “http://” and prepending it if it is missing.
---
### Author:  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2001, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/4 "2001-09-29T20:42:59Z")
Nope, it still tries to pass it on as a file on my computer.
Here is the address that it tries to resolve:
```auto
res://C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHDOCLC.DLL/dnserror.htm#file://D:\dsstuff\htmldocs\[object]
```
I’m stumped BIG time.
---
### Author:  [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2001, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/5 "2001-09-29T21:01:29Z")
I neglected to include that I’d added the “value” property on the end of the form variable read when I tested the code:
```auto
function getURL() {
var theURL = document.fetcher.URL.value;
parent.frames[1].location.href = theURL;
}
```
This code works in MSIE 5.5 and NN 4.73.
---
### Author:  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2001, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/6 "2001-09-29T21:11:14Z")
I knew I was stupid… all it was was the “.value”
_sigh_ thanks thanks
---
### Author:  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2001, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-must-be-stupid-javascript-help/84513/7 "2001-09-30T00:57:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by micco \*
> BTW, this requires the “http://” on the front of the URL. You could make it a little more robust by checking the input to see if it had the “http://” and prepending it if it is missing.
Actually, I think this is a perfect time for me to learn regular expressions to check for a malformed URL. Wish me luck. :Þ