Unable to do form validation in spring - validation

Question

I am trying to do validation in spring mvc. I have added the hibernate-validator-4.0.2.GA. jar and validation-api-1.0.0GA.jar but i am getting exception
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'contact' available as request attribute
org.springframework.web.servlet.support.BindStatus.<init>(BindStatus.java:141)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getBindStatus(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:174)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getPropertyPath(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:194)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.LabelTag.autogenerateFor(LabelTag.java:129)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.LabelTag.resolveFor(LabelTag.java:119)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.LabelTag.writeTagContent(LabelTag.java:89)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractFormTag.doStartTagInternal(AbstractFormTag.java:102)
org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.RequestContextAwareTag.doStartTag(RequestContextAwareTag.java:79)
org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.contact_jsp._jspx_meth_form_005flabel_005f0(contact_jsp.java:250)
org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.contact_jsp._jspService(contact_jsp.java:103)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:432)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:390)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:334)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceView.renderMergedOutputModel(InternalResourceView.java:238)
org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:250)
org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1060)
org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:798)
org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:716)
org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:647)
org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:552)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:621)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.doForward(PageContextImpl.java:745)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.forward(PageContextImpl.java:716)
org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspService(index_jsp.java:71)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:432)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:390)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:334)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
Contact.jsp
<form:form method="get" action="addContact.html" modelAttribute="contact">
<table>
<tr>
<td><form:label path="firstname">First Name</form:label></td>
<td><form:input path="firstname" /></td>
<form:errors path="firstname"></form:errors>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><form:label path="lastname">Last Name</form:label></td>
<td><form:input path="lastname" /></td>
<form:errors path="lastname"></form:errors>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><form:label path="email">Email</form:label></td>
<td><form:input path="email" /></td>
<form:errors path="email"></form:errors>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Add Contact"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Contact.java
public class Contact {
#NotEmpty
private String firstname = null;
#NotEmpty
private String lastname = null;
#NotEmpty
private String email=null;
/*#NotEmpty
#Min(1)
#Max(110)
private int telephone*/;
public String getFirstname() {
return firstname;
}
public void setFirstname(String firstname) {
this.firstname = firstname;
}
public String getLastname() {
return lastname;
}
public void setLastname(String lastname) {
this.lastname = lastname;
}
public String getEmail() {
return email;
}
public void setEmail(String email) {
this.email = email;
}
}
ContactController.java
#Controller
#SessionAttributes
public class ContactController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/addContact", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String addContact( #Valid #ModelAttribute("contact")
Contact contact, BindingResult
result,ModelMap model){
model.addAttribute("contact", new Contact());
if(result.hasErrors()) {
System.out.println("Hiii i am validator");
return "contact";
}
model.addAttribute("message", "Successfully saved person: " + contact.toString());
model.addAttribute("name",contact.getFirstname());
model.addAttribute("surname",contact.getLastname());
// model.addAttribute("age",contact.getTelephone());
model.addAttribute("email",contact.getEmail());
System.out.println("First Name:" + contact.getFirstname() +
"Last Name:" + contact.getLastname());
return "result";
}
#RequestMapping("/contacts")
public ModelAndView showContacts() {
return new ModelAndView("contact", "command", new Contact());
}
}
web.xml
<servlet>
<servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
spring-servlet.xml
<context:component-scan base-package="com.demo.Controller" />
<mvc:annotation-driven />
<context:annotation-config />
<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
<property name="viewClass"
value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView" />
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
<property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
</bean>
<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
<property name="basename" value="/WEB-INF/messages" />
</bean>
I have also tried using commandName instead of modelattribute but still i get the same exception and also tried using both get and post methods.

Answer 1

1 - Create a new Contact instance before loading your Contact.jsp
#RequestMapping("/contacts")
public ModelAndView showContacts() {
ModelAndView m = new ModelAndView("contact");
m.add("contact", new Contact());
return m;
}
2 - Ensure you are invoking the right servlet path :
#RequestMapping(value = "/addContact", method = RequestMethod.GET)
and change it in you form's header:
<form:form method="get" action="addContact" modelAttribute="contact">
Some further information about this error here

Answer 2

I already had this error before and the problem was that I didn't put a simple domain object like your "Contact" in tha Model, while my Spring form was waiting a domain object.
Try to do something like :
model.addAttribute("contact", new contact());
And that should work.