How to collect form data and convert them json format and send back to server in spring mvc - ajax

Question

I have form and I want to grab the data inserted by users and then convert them json format.
So first here is my form—
<form id="patient_form" action="#" class="form-horizontal">
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="firstName"> First Name<em>*</em></label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" id="firstName" class="required" maxlength="100"
placeholder="First Name" />
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="middleNameInitial">
Middle Name Initial</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" id="middleNameInitial"
placeholder="Middle Name Initial" class="input-small"
maxlength="1" />
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="lastName"> Last Name <em>*</em></label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" id="lastName" placeholder="Last Name"
class="required" maxlength="100" />
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="dateOfBirth"> Date Of
Birth</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" id="dateOfBirth" class="required" />
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<div class="controls">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary"
onclick="savePatientInfo()">Save Changes</button>
<button type="button" class="btn"
onclick="cancelPatientInfoForm()">Cancel</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>
And then I want to send back them to server. And for server side code, I’m using spring mvc and client side I’m using JQuery.
Now how can I do it? I need two things basically,
Ajax call (JavaScript function to which will basically do 3 things, one- grab the form data and convert them into json and then ajax call)
Sever side method to consume ajax call (Controller method as I’m
suing spring mvc.)
Any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

First of all you need to perform ajax call from the JSP as below:
$.post("${pageContext.servletContext.contextPath}/ajaxTestData",
{
firstName:$("#firstName").val(),
middleNameInitial:$("#middleNameInitial").val(),
<other form data>
},
function(j)
{
<j is the string you will return from the controller function.>
});
Now in the controller you need to map the ajax request as below:
#RequestMapping(value="/ajaxTestData", method=RequestMethod.POST)
#ResponseBody
public String calculateTestData(#RequestParam("firstName") String firstName, #RequestParam("middleNameInitial") String middleNameInitial, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response){
<perform the task here and return the String result.>
return "xyz";
}
I have not used the JSON input and result in this way but I think if you return the Pojo then it might converts the same in the json format automatically. Just check that.
Hope this helps you. Cheers.