Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean...

[mattrobert]

Hello,

I saw some threads already on this but because I'm a newb, I'm having trouble applying it to my program:

I'm writing a simple web app, that starts with a list of employees in a form that you select with a radio button. This employee that is selected plus the action is passed through the session to the next form for editing.

I wanted to bind the an Employee command object for Validating the form here is the dispatcher-servlet.xml

    <bean id="employeeFormValidator" class="bus.EmployeeFormValidator"/> 
    <bean id="employeeFormController" class="web.EmployeeFormController">
        <property name="sessionForm"><value>true</value></property>
        <property name="commandName"><value>employee</value></property>
        <property name="commandClass"><value>bus.Employee</value></property>
        <property name="validator"><ref bean="employeeFormValidator"/></property>
        <property name="formView"><value>index</value></property>
        <property name="successView"><value>salaryincrease.htm</value></property>
        <property name="employeeManager">
            <ref bean="emplMan"/>
        </property>
    </bean>

relevant methods in my EmployeeFormController( extends SimpleFormController) class are:

    @Override
    protected ModelAndView showForm(HttpServletRequest request,
                                HttpServletResponse response,
                                BindException errors,
                                Map controlModel){
        
    
         
        String now = (new java.util.Date()).toString();
        logger.debug("returning index view with " + now);

        Map myModel = new HashMap();
        myModel.put("now", now);
        myModel.put("employees", getEmployeeManager().getEmployees());

        return new ModelAndView(getFormView(), "model", myModel);
    }    
    
    
    @Override
    protected ModelAndView onSubmit(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors){

        
        String action = request.getParameter("action");
        String id = request.getParameter("id");
        
        logger.debug("action: " + action + " id: " + id);
        
        HttpSession sess =  request.getSession(true);
        sess.setAttribute("action", action);           
        sess.setAttribute("id", id); 
                
        return new ModelAndView(new RedirectView(getSuccessView()));
        
    }

Relevant jsp code is:

                
<spring:bind path="employee.id">
        <c:forEach items="${model.employees}" var="empl">
               <tr>
                    <td><input type="radio" name="id" value="${empl.id}"/></td><td><c:out value="${empl.name}"/></td><td>$ <c:out value="${empl.salary}"/></td>
                </tr>
         </c:forEach>
 </spring:bind>

and finally the error im seeing:

2008-01-03 09:41:58,281 ERROR [org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.BindTag] - Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'employee' available as request attribute
javax.servlet.jsp.JspTagException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'employee' available as request attribute
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.BindTag.doStartTagInternal(BindTag.java:120)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.RequestContextAwareTag.doStartTag(RequestContextAwareTag.java:77)
	at org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.index_jsp._jspService(index_jsp.java from :114)
	at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:93)

and help to resolve the error as well as criticisms of best practices would be appreciated. thanks in advance.

-Matt

[lumpynose]

I think you need to add a formBackingObject method to your controller and have it return(new Employee). The method's name strikes me as a less than ideal choice; I would have preferred formBindingObject, or formBoundObject for it. It returns an object that the <spring:bind> will bind to the form; what the documentation mysteriously refers to as "the bound object".

I'm also thinking that your <spring:bind> path should be just employee, not employee.id.

[mattrobert]

thanks for the response, it is appreciated. I think I fixed it late last night. what I did was add the referenceData method and trashed the show form method:

  @Override
    protected Map referenceData(HttpServletRequest request, Object command, Errors errors) {
           Enumeration e = request.getAttributeNames();
        while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
            String key = (String) e.nextElement();
            Object value = request.getAttribute(key);
            logger.debug("debug: attribute->   " + key + " = " + value);
        }

           
        String now = (new java.util.Date()).toString();
        logger.debug("returning index view with " + now);

        Map myModel = new HashMap();
               myModel.put("now", now);
        myModel.put("employees", getEmployeeManager().getEmployees());

        return myModel;
    }

the bind to employee.id works. I then changed all references to model.<name> in the jsp to just <name>. I was then able to see in the debug logs the command objects as well as the other model objects get added to the model:

2008-01-03 17:18:12,812 DEBUG [org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView] - Added model object 'org.springframework.validation.BindingResult.employee' of type [org.springframework.validation.BeanPropertyBindingResult] to request in view with name 'index'
2008-01-03 17:18:12,812 DEBUG [org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView] - Added model object 'employee' of type [bus.Employee] to request in view with name 'index'
2008-01-03 17:18:12,812 DEBUG [org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView] - Added model object 'now' of type [java.lang.String] to request in view with name 'index'
2008-01-03 17:18:12,812 DEBUG [org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView] - Added model object 'employees' of type [java.util.ArrayList] to request in view with name 'index'

I have another question if youre up to it. I'm having trouble binding other employee fields. what is the best way to bind to a hidden field. I want to display the name of the employee and bind to the name as a hidden field. I've got this:

<spring:bind path="employee.name">
	<td><c:out value="${empl.name}"/><input type="hidden"  name="<c:out value="${status.expression}"/>" value="<c:out value="${empl.name}"/>" /></td>
 </spring:bind>

when i add the spring:bind and input tags shown above the submit on the form doesn't function anymore

[spuds23]

Hi,

I see you are using <spring:bind> tags instead of <form:form> tags.

Why? Because of the limitations and workaround issues? (like with <form:select> needing custom property editor, etc..)

Thanks.

- S

[lumpynose]

http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=48034

[Jörg Heinicke]

what I did was add the referenceData method and trashed the show form method

It was indeed the showForm() method since it broke Spring's setup of the model - and your own was wrong. You configured the command name to be "employee" but added the model as "model". That's why Spring could not find the command object.

Joerg

[mattrobert]

im not sure why im using the bind vs the form...haha. ill look into that, im still figuring out the ins and outs of this. I appreciate the heads up