Spring Boot multiple controllers with same mapping - spring

Question

My problem is very similar with this one: Spring MVC Multiple Controllers with same #RequestMapping
I'm building simple Human Resources web application with Spring Boot. I have a list of jobs and individual url for each job:
localhost:8080/jobs/1
This page contains job posting details and a form which unauthenticated users -applicants, in this case- can use to apply this job. Authenticated users -HR Manager-, can see only posting details, not the form. I have trouble with validating form inputs.
What I tried first:
#Controller
public class ApplicationController {
private final AppService appService;
#Autowired
public ApplicationController(AppService appService) {
this.appService = appService;
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/jobs/{id}", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String handleApplyForm(#PathVariable Long id, #Valid #ModelAttribute("form") ApplyForm form, BindingResult bindingResult) {
if (bindingResult.hasErrors()) {
return "job_detail"; //HTML page which contains job details and the application form
}
appService.apply(form, id);
return "redirect:/jobs";
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/applications/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView getApplicationPage(#PathVariable Long id) {
if (null == appService.getAppById(id)) {
throw new NoSuchElementException(String.format("Application=%s not found", id));
} else {
return new ModelAndView("application_detail", "app", appService.getAppById(id));
}
}
}
As you guess this didn't work because I couldn't get the models. So I put handleApplyForm() to JobController and changed a little bit:
#Controller
public class JobController {
private final JobService jobService;
private final AppService appService;
#Autowired
public JobController(JobService jobService, AppService appService) {
this.jobService = jobService;
this.appService = appService;
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/jobs/{id}", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ModelAndView handleApplyForm(#PathVariable Long id, #Valid #ModelAttribute("form") ApplyForm form, BindingResult bindingResult) {
if (bindingResult.hasErrors()) {
return getJobPage(id);
}
appService.apply(form, id);
return new ModelAndView("redirect:/jobs");
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/jobs/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView getJobPage(#PathVariable Long id) {
Map<String, Object> model = new HashMap<String, Object>();
if (null == jobService.getJobById(id)) {
throw new NoSuchElementException(String.format("Job=%s not found", id));
} else {
model.put("job", jobService.getJobById(id));
model.put("form", new ApplyForm());
}
return new ModelAndView("job_detail", model);
}
}
With this way, validations works but I still can't get the same effect here as it refreshes the page so that all valid inputs disappear and error messages don't appear.
By the way, job_detail.html is like this:
<h1>Job Details</h1>
<p th:inline="text"><strong>Title:</strong> [[${job.title}]]</p>
<p th:inline="text"><strong>Description:</strong> [[${job.description}]]</p>
<p th:inline="text"><strong>Number of people to hire:</strong> [[${job.numPeopleToHire}]]</p>
<p th:inline="text"><strong>Last application date:</strong> [[${job.lastDate}]]</p>
<div sec:authorize="isAuthenticated()">
<form th:action="#{/jobs/} + ${job.id}" method="post">
<input type="submit" value="Delete this posting" name="delete" />
</form>
</div>
<div sec:authorize="isAnonymous()">
<h1>Application Form</h1>
<form action="#" th:action="#{/jobs/} + ${job.id}" method="post">
<div>
<label>First name</label>
<input type="text" name="firstName" th:value="${form.firstName}" />
<td th:if="${#fields.hasErrors('form.firstName')}" th:errors="${form.firstName}"></td>
</div>
<!-- and other input fields -->
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="apply" /> <input type="reset" value="Reset" />
</form>
</div>

Answer 1

Check thymeleaf documentation here
Values for th:field attributes must be selection expressions (*{...}),
Also ApplyForm is exposed then you can catch it in the form.
Then your form should looks like this:
<form action="#" th:action="#{/jobs/} + ${job.id}" th:object="${applyForm}" method="post">
<div>
<label>First name</label>
<input type="text" name="firstName" th:value="*{firstName}" />
<td th:if="${#fields.hasErrors('firstName')}" th:errors="*{firstName}"></td>
</div>
<!-- and other input fields -->
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="apply" /> <input type="reset" value="Reset" />
</form>