Partial rendering of a form with Ajax and fragments

[thiebal]

Hi,

I'm trying to refresh a part of my form with Sring Javascript and tiles fragments: on a select change, I want to populate and refresh another select input.

It works well when I reload the whole page but when I reload only the second select via Ajax, I have an exception:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'children' available as request attribute

Here is my code:

Flow definition

[...]
<view-state id="form" view="keyword.edit">
  <on-render>
    <evaluate expression="editKeywordAction.setupForm" />
  </on-render>
  <transition on="changeTree">
    <evaluate expression="editKeywordAction.bind" />
    <evaluate expression="editKeywordAction.changeTree" />
    <render fragments="children" />
  </transition>
  <transition on="save" to="finish">
    <evaluate expression="editKeywordAction.bindAndValidate" />
    <evaluate expression="editKeywordAction.save" />
  </transition>
  <transition on="cancel" to="cancel" />
</view-state>
[...]

Tiles definition

<definition name="keyword.edit" template="/jsp/edit.jsp">
  <put-attribute name="children" value="/jsp/children.jsp" />
</definition>

JSP
edit.jsp

<script type="text/javascript">
  function changeTree() {
    $('_eventId').value = 'changeTree';
    Spring.remoting.submitForm('tree', 'keyword', {fragments: 'children'}); 
    return false;
  }
</script>
<form:form commandName="keyword" name="keyword" action="${flowExecutionUrl}">
  <input type="hidden" name="_eventId" id="_eventId" value="save" />
  
  <form:select path="tree" id="tree" onchange="changeTree()" multiple="false">
    <form:options items="${trees}" />
  </form:select>
  
  <tiles:insertAttribute name="children" />

</form:form>

children.jsp

<form:select path="children" id="children" multiple="false">
  <form:options items="${children}" />
</form:select>

Exception

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'childTest' available as request attribute
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.support.BindStatus.<init>(BindStatus.java:141)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getBindStatus(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:172)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getPropertyPath(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:192)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getName(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:158)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.writeDefaultAttributes(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:121)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractHtmlElementTag.writeDefaultAttributes(AbstractHtmlElementTag.java:379)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.SelectTag.writeTagContent(SelectTag.java:198)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractFormTag.doStartTagInternal(AbstractFormTag.java:90)
  at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.RequestContextAwareTag.doStartTag(RequestContextAwareTag.java:77)

Does that means I can only reload the whole form (including the form:form tags) and not only some inputs of this form ?

[caoilte]

Hi,
I'm trying to do exactly the same thing. Did you ever figure out a way of partially rendering the form? I'm guessing it's not possible.

[thiebal]

No, I did not find a solution for the moment :-(

[oehmiche]

did you find a solution for that problem?

I have created a jira-issue. see http://jira.springframework.org/browse/SWF-925

[thiebal]

Yes... I've switched to Wicket ;-)

[m4rkuz]

How is this wicket thing... can you work with spring from within wicket?

[Keith Donald]

You should be able to use the spring:bind tag around the control you want to re-render partially to setup the same binding in the Ajax case. See the spring:bind tag in the Spring Framework reference manual.

Keith

[pete_g]

As a newbie I am frustrated. Is there a solution for the partial render w/tiles, webflow and bindings? If my spring tags (bind or form) reference a model attribute I get the previously mentioned bind failure. Other attempts such as rendering a simple HTML list not bound to an attribute work fine. I have tried upgrading tiles/spring beyond framework=2.6; webflow=2.08; tiles = 2.06 but only succeeded in breaking tiles on startup. Any guidance is appreciated

Thanks!

[Benny]

Keith is correct, you can use spring:bind and reference the parent modelAttribute value in the path in order for this to work.

Using the Spring form input tags to bind individual properties requires a parent form:form tag in the same fragment (with modelAttribute name) in order for the binding to work when rendering the fragment.

[stylatone]

I have the same problem. Actually, spring:bind is a solution but it's not convenient. it requires to enclose simple html tags with spring:bind whereas our form is build only with spring form tag. It's complexify the code a make almost useless the use of fragment with form pages.

Have you plan to find an easier solution ? Like the idea of https://jira.springframework.org/browse/SWF-1292 to make a tag which do the job of form:form without render an html <form> tag ?