Form as View - Forwarding to another Controller

[greg]

Hello -

I am fairly new to the Spring framework and have been working w/ it for the past couple of months. I selected it as the web framework for an off-hours project I am doing since it touts "simplicity" and that is kind of what I was looking for. I didn't really want the bloat of Struts for this particular project and had heard good things about Spring.

Anyway, there is one simple thing that I am trying to do though that I just can't seem to find an example of anywhere.

Basically, I have a search form where I would like the search form to remain in the same view (a JSP) as the results. Well, everything works fine and dandy until after the user submits their query and I try and hyrdrate the same JSP (as the form is in) w/ my results.

The error I am getting seems to be related to the fact that the JSP no longer has access to the command object (i.e. formBackingObject) since i didn't route through the controller. I am also using the "bind" tag in my JSP.

I also tried using a redirectView to go back to the controller and this doesn't work because then I lose my request scoped data that I put into the ModelAndView w/ the search results (the form backed object is created though).

This seems simple (I know in Struts you can chain actions together to accomplish this) but I must be missing something.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Greg

[gmatthews]

what do you mean by this "...since i didn't route through the controller..."

Maybe post some code?

You're right in not using redirect view since that will reset your form state.

[irbouho]

This seems simple (I know in Struts you can chain actions together to accomplish this) but I must be missing something.

You can forward to another controller using the forward: prefix. This requires Spring 1.1.3.
HTH

[gilbertoca]

What about using the interface Controller instead of the class SimpleFormController?
I did this way:

public class UnidadeController implements Controller {
    private final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(UnidadeController.class);
    private UnidadeManager mgr = null;

    public void setUnidadeManager(UnidadeManager unidadeManager) {
        this.mgr = unidadeManager;
    }
    
     public ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
                                      HttpServletResponse response)
    throws Exception {
        if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
            log.debug("entering 'handleRequest' method...");
        }
        String cdClassificacaoInstitucional = null; 
        String cdEntidade = null;
        String dcEntidade = null;
        Map model = new HashMap();
        
		cdClassificacaoInstitucional = request.getParameter("cdClassificacaoInstitucional");        
		cdEntidade = request.getParameter("cdEntidade");
		dcEntidade = request.getParameter("dcEntidade");
        //Primeira vez que este formulario for requisitado, a consulta será efetuada com valores default
        if (cdClassificacaoInstitucional == null){
          [u]model.put("entidades"[/u], mgr.getEntidadesPorCdClassificacao(new Integer(2)));        
           [u] model.put(Constants.UNIDADE_LIST[/u], mgr.getEntidadesPorCdClassificacao(new Integer(2)));        
        }else	if (cdEntidade == null){
                model.put("entidades", mgr.getEntidadesPorCdClassificacao(Integer.valueOf(cdClassificacaoInstitucional)));        
                model.put(Constants.UNIDADE_LIST, mgr.getEntidadesPorCdClassificacao(Integer.valueOf(cdClassificacaoInstitucional)));        
        	}else	if(cdEntidade == null || dcEntidade.length() == 0) {        
                    model.put("entidades", mgr.getEntidadesPorCdEntidadeMembroDE(Integer.valueOf(cdEntidade)));        
                    model.put(Constants.UNIDADE_LIST, mgr.getEntidadesPorCdEntidadeMembroDE(Integer.valueOf(cdEntidade)));        
        		}else  if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                        log.debug("Requisicoes subsequentes, neste caso o usuario OPTOU PELA CONSULTA PERSONALIZADA"+dcEntidade);
                    }
        			model.put("entidades", mgr.getEntidadesPorDcEntidade(Integer.valueOf(cdEntidade),dcEntidade));        
                    model.put(Constants.UNIDADE_LIST, mgr.getEntidadesPorDcEntidade(Integer.valueOf(cdEntidade),dcEntidade));        
        		}
        		
        	}
        }
        
        return new ModelAndView("unidadeList",model );
    }
}

I hope this help!
Gilbeto

[daniele.guarneri]

You can forward to another controller using the forward: prefix. This requires Spring 1.1.3.
HTH

Please I don't understand, can you make a sample? forward:virtual address of controller ?
One another question: I can use forward: also with SimpleMappingExceptionResolver ?

[michaeldiamond]

If you want to return your command object to your form using a SimpleFormController, set sessionForm(true) for your controller then return showForm(request, errors, view) from your onSubmit method rather than returning a new ModelAndView. This will put the command object back into the session and make it available to the spring:bind tags.