Unable to bind form fields to command.

[abhi_svits]

Folks,

I am new to springs, to head start I was trying to implement a search application. I am facing an issue with binding form parameters to the respective command object.

In the following source I am trying to bind user input via search form to the respective bean in request scope. But alas, the value is never in place.

I need your expert comments following are the code chunks of the flow.xml, form action configuration, search jsp and form bean.
My web flow looks like this:
I am using webflow-1.0.xsd

	<var name="searchBeanHolder" scope="flow" class="com.domain.SearchBeanHolder" />
	
	<start-state idref="askforcriteria" />
	
	<view-state id="askforcriteria" view="home">
		<transition on="search" to="search" />
	</view-state>
	
	<view-state id="search" view="searchForm">
		<render-actions>
        	<action bean="searchFormAction" method="setupForm"/>
        </render-actions>
	
		<transition on="submitSearch" to="searchOrders">
			<action bean="searchFormAction" method="bind"/>
			<evaluate-action expression=
				"flowScope.searchBeanHolder.setFormBean(requestScope.formBean)" />
		</transition>
	</view-state>

	<action-state id="searchOrders">
	    <action bean="searchOrderService"/>
	    <transition on="success" to="showOrders" />
	</action-state>
	
	<view-state id="showOrders" view="searchResultForm">
		<transition on="search" to="search" />
	</view-state>

Search Form is as follows:

<form:form commandName="searchBeanHolder.formBean" action="flow.htm"> 								      	  	
	<b>Trading Partner:</b><form:input path="tradingPartner"/></br>
	<b>Request Number:</b><form:input path="requestNumber"/></br>
	<b>Message Type:</b><form:input path="messageType"/></br>
	<input type="hidden" name="_flowExecutionKey" value='<c:out value="${flowExecutionKey}"/>'/>
	</br>
	<input type="submit" class="button" name="_eventId_submitSearch" value="Submit"/>
	<input type="submit" class="button" name="_eventId_cancel" value="Cancel"/>
</form:form>

Form Action is configured as follows:

    <bean id="searchFormAction" class="org.springframework.webflow.action.FormAction">
                <property name="formObjectName"  value="formBean"/>
                <property name="formObjectClass" value="com.domain.SearchFormBean"/>
                <property name="formObjectScope" value="REQUEST"/>
        </bean>

public class SearchBeanHolder implements Serializable
{
	private SearchFormBean formBean;

	private List<OrderDetail> results;
	
	public SearchBeanHolder() 
	{
		formBean = new SearchFormBean();
		results = new ArrayList<OrderDetail>();
		System.out.println("[SearchBeanHolder]Inside Constructor ... ");
	}

	public SearchFormBean getFormBean() 
	{
		return formBean;
	}

	public void setFormBean(SearchFormBean formBean) 
	{
		this.formBean = formBean;
	}

	public List<OrderDetail> getResults() {
		return results;
	}

	public void setResults(List<OrderDetail> results) {
		this.results = results;
	}
	

	public String toString() {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return super.toString()+" "+formBean+" "+results;
	}
}

package com.domain;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.List;

public class SearchFormBean implements Serializable
{
	private String tradingPartner;
	
	private String requestNumber;
	
	private String messageType;
	
	
	public SearchFormBean() {
		tradingPartner = "";
		requestNumber ="";
		messageType = "";
	}


	public String getTradingPartner() 
	{
		return tradingPartner;
	}
	
	public void setTradingPartner(String tradingPartner) 
	{
		this.tradingPartner = tradingPartner;
	}
	
	public String getRequestNumber() 
	{
		return requestNumber;
	}
	
	public void setRequestNumber(String requestNumber) 
	{
		this.requestNumber = requestNumber;
	}
	
	public String getMessageType() 
	{
		return messageType;
	}
	
	public void setMessageType(String messageType) 
	{
		this.messageType = messageType;
	}
	
	public String toString() {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return super.toString()+" "+tradingPartner+" "+requestNumber+" "+messageType;
	}
	
}

[abhi_svits]

formAction.bind->dataBinder.getAllowedFields

Found that getAllowedFields returns null.
Here's the logs:

Binding allowed request parameters in map['formBean.requestNumber' -> 'def', 'formBean.tradingPartner' -> 'abc', 'formBean.me
ssageType' -> 'ghi', '_eventId_submitSearch' -> 'Submit', '_flowExecutionKey' -> '_cFFAC65F9-A732-FB8E-DA84-346AB79FC5D1_kE69
8A62F-C0BA-5589-A9AA-6E866CDD3A7F'] to form object with name 'formBean', pre-bind formObject toString = com.domain.SearchForm

(Allowed fields are [null])

Binding completed for form object with name 'formBean', post-bind formObject toString = com.domain.SearchFormBean@b1c468
No results thus binded to formObject after processing.

[abhi_svits]

I traced the log and found the parameters name generated were formbean.messageType, formbean.tradingPartner and so on...
I was expecting those names without formBean.... This was the reason I was not getting the value bind correctly.