How to build an html form without using apex:form on the page?

Question

I have an html <form> I would like to use to trigger an apex function without using any <apex:form> on the page. Is that possible? If so how?

Code sample:

Page:

<apex:page standardController="SomeObj__c" extensions="myProcessor">
   <form action="send" method="post">
      <!-- some fields with values to send over -->
   </form> 
</apex:page>

Controller:

public with sharing class myProcessor {

    public myProcessor(ApexPages.StandardController controller) {
    }

    public PageReference send() {
        // processing
    }
}

Answer 1

I'm thinking you'll need to use Javascript Remoting since apex:actionFunction has to be in an apex:form. However, since it uses asynchronous ajax, you'll need to prevent submitting the form until the callback function:

New Controller method:

@remoteMethod
public static string send()
{
    return '';
}

Visualforce:

<script type="text/javascript">
    function doSubmit(form)
    {
        myProcessor.send(function(result, event){
                form.target = result;
                form.submit();
        });
        return !!form.target; //Prevent the first submit
    }
</script>
<form action="send" method="post" onsubmit="return doSubmit(this);">
  <!-- some fields with values to send over -->
</form>