In MVC how is the data passed from JSP to Controller? - spring

Question

I'm following the Spring MVC tutorial here: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/spring/spring_mvc_form_handling_example.htm
and I'm not getting the logic how is the data passed from JSP to Controller.
I think I understand how the data is passed from the Controller to the JSP, but after the user has edited the form on the JSP how is the data passed to the Controller?
In the controller:
public String addStudent(#ModelAttribute("SpringWeb")Student student, ModelMap model)
question:
How the controller knows that from the form on the jsp Student class instance student with name, age and id are passed?
I have this example working. I have altered the example to display a list of students, but I am not able to get the list from JSP to Controller:
#RequestMapping(value = "/student", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ModelAndView studentSave(#ModelAttribute("listOfStudents") ArrayList<Student> listOfStudents,ModelMap model)
{
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("Beans.xml");
StudentJDBCTemplate studentJDBCTemplate = (StudentJDBCTemplate) context.getBean("studentJDBCTemplate");
System.out.println("Size of listOfStudents is = " + listOfStudents.size());
...
listOfStudents.size() returns 0.
question: what am i missing here, why I can't get the list from the form on the jsp?

Answer 1

question: How the controller knows that from the form on the jsp
Student class instance student with name, age and id are passed?
When you submit the form you are making an HTTP (typically, POST) request to a given URL. This POST request will contain the values in
the form as request parameters. If you were not using any web framework (e.g. Spring MVC) then you would typically work directly with the Servlet API
to extract and work with these values, particularly the HttpServletRequest object.
http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/servlet/http/HttpServletRequest.html
You can try this is your application by adding the following (the Spring MVC framework will automatically pass in the request).
public String addStudent(#ModelAttribute Student student, HttpServletRequest request){
for(String key : request.getParameterMap().keySet()){
System.out.println(key + "=" + request.getParameterMap().get(key);
}
}
Now, regardless of the framework you are using the underlying mechanism does not change, the parameters are still sent in the POST request as simple Strings.
The framework however essentially adds an abstraction layer on top of this to prevent you having to write boilerplate to extract and manually work with these
parameters. So, rather than having to do the following:
public String addStudent(HttpServletRequest request){
Student student = new Student();
student.setId(Integer.parseInt(request.getParameter("id"));
student.setName(request.getParameter("name"));
....
}
you let the framework take care of it.
public String addStudent(#ModelAttribute Student student){
}
The #ModelAttribute tells the framework you want the submitted parameters to be bound to a Student instance. On submit, the framework will create a new Student
instance and, by means of reflection, (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reflect/) set the various fields to the corresponding HTTP params.
As for the 2nd part of your question there are numerous examples of how to bind to a Collection. See below for example:
http://viralpatel.net/blogs/spring-mvc-multi-row-submit-java-list/

Answer 2

Generally 'work' is done in the controller, and the results are passed to the JSP simply for display. The JSP renders to the user's browser over HTTP and then the user modifies the page and posts back to the controller.
If you're doing 'work' in the JSP that needs to be passed back to the controller before the page is sent to the user, then you should consider finding a way of doing all that in the controller.
Having said this. The model that you pass to the JSP doesn't have to contain simple objects. You can pass to the JSP an object that has methods on it that performs processing. Then in the JSP you simply call one of the methods on that object.

Answer 3

the controller and jsp are linked together by #ModelAttribute.
example if i want to add a new student i would first link the corresponding jsp page with the student database. like
//setup add new student form
#RequestMapping(value = "/add", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String setStudentForm(#ModelAttribute("newStudent") Student newStudent){
return "addstudent";
}
this will set up my jsp page. In jsp page i have already declared the colums like firstname, lastname which are linked with my student model.
<form:form modelAttribute="newStudent" class="form-horizontal">
<form:input id="firstName" path="firstName" type="text"/>
<form:input id="lastName" path="lastName" type="text"/>
<input type="submit" id="btnAdd" value ="add"/>
</form>
Like this i created the ling. Now when i press submit button if will land a post request and thus following method in controller will be executed.
#RequestMapping(value = "/add", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processStudentForm(Model model, #ModelAttribute("newStudent") #Valid Student newStudent, BindingResult result ){
newStudent.setFirstName("gurpreet");
if(result.hasErrors()){
return "addstudent";
}
studentService.add(newStudent);
model.addAttribute("message", "Added successfully");
return "redirect:/students";
}
I can also make changes in the data like i did newStudent.setFirstName("gurpreet"); before saving the object through studentService
the #RequestMapping url is same but method has changed to POST from GET as submit button have POST submission.
(#ModelAttribute("newStudent") Student newStudent)
associates our view, Model and controller alltogether.