Ok im getting closer. This gives me the id for each form being submitted, the alert(selector); in the external js fires off so its getting the request, but the form now does not submit...just stis there laughing at me.
Page js: <script type="text/javascript"> //dummy class added to button to test it out $(".dummy").click(function () { var $this = $(this); var form_id = $this.closest("form").attr("id"); // get the form id //alert(form_id); uRec('#'+form_id); //return false; }); </script> External js: function uRec(selector){ var $form = $(selector); alert(selector); $form.submit( function() { var data = $(form_id).serialize(); var form_url = $(form_id).attr('action'); var form_target = form_url.substr(1).replace( new RegExp( "/" ,"g"), "_" ); var update_target = (form_target.replace("_edit", "")); $.blockUI({ message: null}); $form.ajaxSubmit({ type: "post", url: form_url +'/', data: data, dataType: 'json', success: function(response){ if (response.status === true) { $.unblockUI(); $('#' + update_target).html(response.html).slideToggle('slow').highlightFade({speed: 2000}); $('#' + form_target).slideToggle('slow'); } else { $.unblockUI(); $('#' + form_target).html(response.html); } } }); return false; }); };