request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect - spring

Question

I have 2 very similar web functions that use spring framework, Function 1 hits "request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect" while Function 2 works well. I show the one does not work below in the hope that someone can help me.
Function 1 JSP:
<form:form id="sform" action="DealMaintEdit.htm" method="POST" commandName="dmForm">
<table border="1">
<tr><td><spring:message code="label.DealID"/></td>
<td><form:input path="deal.dealId" readonly="true" size="6"/></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><spring:message code="label.Code"/></td>
<td><form:input path="deal.stkCode" maxlength="5" size="6"/>
<form:errors path="deal.stkCode" cssClass="error"/></td>
</tr> .....other fields skipped....
</table>
<form:hidden path="mode"/>
<form:hidden path="butt" value="Save"/>
<input form="sform" type="submit" value="<spring:message code="label.Save"/>"/>
</form:form>
Function 1 dmForm:
#Component
public class DealMaintForm {
private String mode;
private String butt;
#Valid
private Deal deal;
.....
Function 1 controller:
#RequestMapping(value = "/DealMaintEdit.htm")
public String dealMaintEdit(#ModelAttribute("dmForm") #Valid DealMaintForm form,
#RequestParam("butt") String butt, BindingResult result, Map model) {
I have if (result.hasErrors()) in the controller but it didn't execute before hitting the error.
Function 1 Deal:
public class Deal implements Serializable {
private Long dealId;
private DealType type;
#NotNull
#Min(1)
#Max(99999)
private int stkCode;
......
The funny thing is, if there is validation error, it hits the syntactically incorrect error before reaching the controller method. Say if I input 2 to stkCode it works fine, but if I change the #Min(1) in stkCode to #Min(5), input an 2 in stkCode will hit syntactically incorrect. Other fields are the same.
My other web form that works looks like this.
Function 2 JSP:
<form:form action="StockMaint2Edit.htm" method="POST" commandName="smForm">
<form:hidden path="mode"/>
<form:hidden path="stk.id"/>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td><spring:message code="label.Code"/></td>
<td><form:input path="stk.code"/><form:errors path="stk.code" cssClass="error"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><spring:message code="label.Name"/></td>
<td><form:input path="stk.name" /><form:errors path="stk.name" cssClass="error"/></td>
</tr>
</table>
<form:hidden path="butt" value="Save"/>
<input type="submit" value="<spring:message code="label.Save"/>"/>
</form:form>
Function 2 smForm
#Component
public class StockMaintForm2 {
private String mode;
private String butt;
#Valid
private Stock stk;
.....
Function 2 Controller
#RequestMapping(value = "/StockMaint2Edit.htm")
public String stockMaintEdit(#ModelAttribute("smForm") #Valid StockMaintForm2 form,
BindingResult result, Map model) {
if (result.hasErrors()) {
System.out.println("edit has errors");
List<FieldError> errList = result.getFieldErrors();
for (FieldError fe : errList) {
......
Function 2 Stock
public class Stock implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private Long id;
#NotNull
#Min(1)
#Max(99999)
private int code;
#NotBlank
private String name;
....
Function 2 works with all validation error msg displayed correctly. No syntactically incorrect error.
Compared them several times and still not able to spot the difference and the cause of the problem. Please let me know if I should provide more info.

Answer 1

I guess this causes the error,
<form:hidden path="butt" value="Save"/>
You can try with normal hidden field as ,
<input type="hidden" name="butt" value="Save"/>
in your Function 1 JSP .
As you have used the spring:form tag . butt will be not available explicitly in the request. you need to get it from the model attribute or you can make the input field simply with html tag. so that it will be available in the request.

Answer 2

Thank you for all the responses. I should reply individually, but after adding the first comment I am not able to add further comments. So I reply here. With your help I focused on the "butt". Since it is in both the form and the param, I delete the #RequestParam and obtain it from the form, and then it works.
#RequestMapping(value = "/DealMaintEdit.htm")
public String dealMaintEdit(#ModelAttribute("dmForm") #Valid DealMaintForm form,
BindingResult result, Map model) { ......
#SergeBallesta, tried your suggestion by moving the butt to the end and it also works. How can I add yours as useful comment?
#RequestMapping(value = "/DealMaintEdit.htm")
public String dealMaintEdit(#ModelAttribute("dmForm") #Valid DealMaintForm form,
BindingResult result, Map model, #RequestParam("butt") String butt) { ....
#SanKrish, tried the normal html "hidden" but it doesn't work. Furthermore, since the problem is missing param and my #RequestParam is redundant, I experimented it with this
#RequestMapping(value = "/DealMaintEdit.htm")
public String dealMaintEdit(#ModelAttribute("dmForm") #Valid DealMaintForm form,
#RequestParam("butt2") String butt2, BindingResult result, Map model) { ....
and in the jsp
<form:form id="sform" action="DealMaintEdit.htm?butt2=abcd" method="POST" commandName="dmForm">
it also doesn't work. Though the problem some how solved, there remains 2 questions:
Why "butt2" still has syntactically error?
If the original problem was due to missing param, why it only happens when there is validation error?

Answer 3

and I see that you're actually merging your annotations on the methods:
could you try to get a line break there:
public class Stock implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private Long id;
#NotNull
#Min(1)
#Max(99999)
private int code;
#NotBlank
private String name;
....