Submitting empty field on form

[strbuf]

How would I allow some empty field on form submission? What do I need to add on my controller? Because the form would only insert data if all fields weren't empty.

Thanks in advance

[katentim]

How would I allow some empty field on form submission?

Depends what the field is. AFAIK, if it's a primitive you can't if your binding to it. Otherwise you can define it in your property editor. For example, CustomDateEditor has the signature:

CustomDateEditor(DateFormat dateFormat, boolean allowEmpty)

[strbuf]

So it would be better to get the value with request.getParameter() rather than binding it?

[Colin Yates]

All HTML input types *except for checkboxes* will return an empty string. Is this what you mean?

To get around the horrific flaw in checkbox handling, you can have a hidden element with "_propertyName" in your form. When spring binds it will intialise to the default values *including primitives* any properties which have a corresponding "_propertyName" parameter.

HTH.

[katentim]

To get around the horrific flaw in checkbox handling

I'm sure yatesco means horrific handling by browsers

This is a problem for all server side handling of checkboxes. You can also override onBindAndValidate:

    protected void onBindAndValidate(HttpServletRequest request, Object command, BindException errors) throws java.lang.Exception {
        MyObject myObject = (MyObject) command;
        myObject.setLikesSpring(request.getParameter("likesSpringCheckBox") != null);
    }

[katentim]

So it would be better to get the value with request.getParameter() rather than binding it?

Probably not if it is an object. I guess your other option is to set the allowFields property accordingly, and do the binding yourself - a bit messy though.

[Colin Yates]

yes, I did mean in browsers

strbuf; I am not sure I get your problem, are you asking whether a form can be partially populated, i.e. only with parameters that are sent?

For the intellectually challenged amongst us (i.e. me ) can you explain the problem, and the solution you want.

[strbuf]

Say I have two input fields.

input type="text" name="name"
and
input type="text" name="address"

I want the form still submitted/insert the data eventhough the address field is not filled in/empty. Using spring:bind won't allow me to have empty fields on form submission.

[Colin Yates]

Why? What exception do you get?

assume:

  class MyForm {
    private String address;
    private String name;

    //accessors hidden.
  }

you can certainly bind on the properties of that form regardless of whether they are null

[katentim]

Using spring:bind won't allow me to have empty fields on form submission

This should work. You might have to post the relevant code to get this sorted out.

Can I suggest first looking at the sample applications in the Spring distribution, and try submitting empty fields yourself.