JavaScript post request like a form submit

Dynamically create <input>s in a form and submit it

/**
 * sends a request to the specified url from a form. this will change the window location.
 * @param {string} path the path to send the post request to
 * @param {object} params the parameters to add to the url
 * @param {string} [method=post] the method to use on the form
 */

function post(path, params, method='post') {

  // The rest of this code assumes you are not using a library.
  // It can be made less verbose if you use one.
  const form = document.createElement('form');
  form.method = method;
  form.action = path;

  for (const key in params) {
    if (params.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      const hiddenField = document.createElement('input');
      hiddenField.type = 'hidden';
      hiddenField.name = key;
      hiddenField.value = params[key];

      form.appendChild(hiddenField);
    }
  }

  document.body.appendChild(form);
  form.submit();
}

Example:

post('/contact/', {name: 'Johnny Bravo'});

EDIT: Since this has gotten upvoted so much, I'm guessing people will be copy-pasting this a lot. So I added the hasOwnProperty check to fix any inadvertent bugs.

This would be a version of the selected answer using jQuery.

// Post to the provided URL with the specified parameters.
function post(path, parameters) {
    var form = $('<form></form>');

    form.attr("method", "post");
    form.attr("action", path);

    $.each(parameters, function(key, value) {
        var field = $('<input></input>');

        field.attr("type", "hidden");
        field.attr("name", key);
        field.attr("value", value);

        form.append(field);
    });

    // The form needs to be a part of the document in
    // order for us to be able to submit it.
    $(document.body).append(form);
    form.submit();
}

A simple quick-and-dirty implementation of @Aaron answer:

document.body.innerHTML += '<form id="dynForm" action="http://example.com/" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="q" value="a"></form>';
document.getElementById("dynForm").submit();

Of course, you should rather use a JavaScript framework such as Prototype or jQuery...

Using the createElement function provided in this answer, which is necessary due to IE's brokenness with the name attribute on elements created normally with document.createElement:

function postToURL(url, values) {
    values = values || {};

    var form = createElement("form", {action: url,
                                      method: "POST",
                                      style: "display: none"});
    for (var property in values) {
        if (values.hasOwnProperty(property)) {
            var value = values[property];
            if (value instanceof Array) {
                for (var i = 0, l = value.length; i < l; i++) {
                    form.appendChild(createElement("input", {type: "hidden",
                                                             name: property,
                                                             value: value[i]}));
                }
            }
            else {
                form.appendChild(createElement("input", {type: "hidden",
                                                         name: property,
                                                         value: value}));
            }
        }
    }
    document.body.appendChild(form);
    form.submit();
    document.body.removeChild(form);
}