How to use jsp tag for select? - spring

Question

I have a view model and one of the fields has to be mapped to a dropdown. I manage to populate the dropdown but i don't know how to specify the selected value.
edituser.jsp
<%# include file="/WEB-INF/template/taglibs.jsp"%>
<div class="container">
<%# include file="menu.jsp"%>
<form:form commandName="editForm" method="post" class="form-horizontal form-width">
<fieldset>
<legend>Edit user</legend>
<div class="form-group">
<input class="hidden" type="text" value="${id}" hidden="true" name="id"/>
<label for="firstName" class="col-lg-2 control-label">First
name</label>
<div class="col-lg-10">
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="firstName"
placeholder="First name" name="firstName" value="${fname}">
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="lastName" class="col-lg-2 control-label">Last
name</label>
<div class="col-lg-10">
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="lastName"
placeholder="Last name" name="lastName" value="${lname}">
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="select" class="col-lg-2 control-label">Role</label>
<div class="col-lg-10">
<select name="role" class="form-control">
<option value="NONE">Select role</option>
<c:forEach items="${roles}" var="role">
<option value="${role}">${role}</option>
</c:forEach>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="username" class="col-lg-2 control-label">Username</label>
<div class="col-lg-10">
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="username"
placeholder="Username" name="username" value="${username}">
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="inputPassword" class="col-lg-2 control-label">Password</label>
<div class="col-lg-10">
<input type="password" class="form-control" id="inputPassword"
placeholder="Password" name="password" value="${guid}">
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="inputPassword" class="col-lg-2 control-label">Confirm password</label>
<div class="col-lg-10">
<input type="password" class="form-control" id="inputPassword"
placeholder="Password" name="confirmedpassword" value="${guid}">
</div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-lg-10 col-lg-offset-2">
<a class="btn btn-warning" href="http://localhost:8080/Catering/index/users">Cancel</a>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-warning">Submit</button>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
</form:form>
</div>
UsersController
#Controller
public class UsersController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/editUser", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String getEditUserPage(#RequestParam int id, Model model, Authentication authentication) {
logger.debug("Received request to show edit user page(GET)");
model.addAttribute("username", "You are logged in as " + authentication.getPrincipal());
UserModel user = UserDataAccess.getUserById(id);
model.addAttribute("id", user.getId());
model.addAttribute("fname", user.getFirstName());
model.addAttribute("lname", user.getLastName());
model.addAttribute("role", user.getRole());
model.addAttribute("username", user.getUsername());
model.addAttribute("guid", guid);
model.addAttribute("editForm", new UserViewModel());
return "edituser";
}
}
UserViewModel
public class UserViewModel {
private int id;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
private String role;
private String username;
private String password;
private String confirmedpassword;
//getters and setters
}

Answer 1

You can do something like (not tested)
<select name="role" class="form-control">
<option value="NONE">Select role</option>
<c:forEach items="${roles}" var="curRole">
<c:choose>
<c:when test="${curRole eq role}">
<option selected="selected">${role}</option>
</c:when>
<c:otherwise>
<option>${role}</option>
</c:otherwise>
</c:choose>
</c:forEach>
</select>
You also must add a Collection in your controller, representing the list of all roles. I cannot see it from your code.
I suggest you to take a look at spring-form.tld facilities, in your particular case: select tags: http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/spring-form.tld.html#spring-form.tld.select
Here you can find a simple example on how using spring:form tag: http://www.mkyong.com/spring-mvc/spring-mvc-dropdown-box-example/