Model is lost when forwarding from one controller from another

[denis_k]

I have 2 controllers:

@Controller
public class StartController {
	@RequestMapping(value = "/start")
	public ModelAndView start(){
		HashMap<String, Object> model = new HashMap<String, Object>();
		model.put("hello", "world");
		return new ModelAndView("forward:/end", model);
	}
}

@Controller
public class EndController {
	@RequestMapping(value = "/end")
	public ModelAndView end(Model model){
               System.out.println(model); //model is empty
               return null;
	}
}

Anytime I hit StartController, it forwards to EndController, but the Model in EndController is always empty.
I suspect I'm doing something fundamentally wrong, since the issue persists in both 3.1.0 and 3.2.1, but I couldn't google out the answer why this happens. Can anyone suggest?

[Marten Deinum]

The Model will always be empty. You have simply attributes in your model so they should be available as request parameters.

[denis_k]

The Model will always be empty. You have simply attributes in your model so they should be available as request parameters.

Thanks for the answer.
You probably meant that I can pull 'hello' parameter from the request like this

@Controller
public class EndController {
	@RequestMapping(value = "/end")
	public ModelAndView end(Model model, HttpServletRequest request){
               System.out.println(model); //model is empty
               System.out.println(request.getAttribute('hello')); //this outputs 'world'
               return null;
	}
}

This works. Is there no purpose in declaring Model parameter in a controller at all?

[Marten Deinum]

This works. Is there no purpose in declaring Model parameter in a controller at all?

Not in the way you want to use it. The model only has purpose for the current method the content of the model isn't passed on the the next method. The forward could be to a servlet or whatever so spring does make no assumptions regarding this.

You probably meant that I can pull 'hello' parameter from the request like this

You should use getParameter not getAttribute...

[denis_k]

Not in the way you want to use it. The model only has purpose for the current method the content of the model isn't passed on the the next method. The forward could be to a servlet or whatever so spring does make no assumptions regarding this.

Thanks, this makes sense now.

You should use getParameter not getAttribute...

Strange, in my case, request.getParameter returns null, but request.getAttribute returns what is expected.