The click() and submit() functions are quite similar in terms of functionalities. However there are minor differences. Let us discuss some differences between them.

The submit() function is applicable only for <form> and makes handling of form easier. It can be used with any element inside a form. The click() is only applicable to buttons with type submit in a form.

The submit() function shall wait for the page to load however the click() waits only if any explicit wait condition is provided. If a form has a submit of type button, the submit() method cannot be used. Also, if a button is outside <form>, then submit() will not work.

Thus we see that click() works for both type buttons irrespective of the fact that the button is inside or outside of <form>. Let us take up the below form for implementation.

package com.test.traveltest;

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class SubmitForm {

	@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		
		System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", System.getProperty("user.dir")+"\\src\\main\\java\\drivers\\chromedriver.exe");
		WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
	      String url = "https://www.facebook.com/";
	      driver.get(url);
	      driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
	      // identify elements
	      driver.findElement(By.id("email")).sendKeys("abc@gmail.com");
	      driver.findElement(By.id("pass")).sendKeys("123456");
	      // submitting form with submit()
	      driver.findElement(By.id("pass")).submit();
	      driver.quit();

	}