populate a form

[Al Coson]

Note: Im using Spring for the view and buisiness layer, and Hibernate. But hibernate isn't important here. Im also really new to Spring.

I have created a form for adding items to my database, and it works. For that Im using a controller class that extends SimpleFormController.

I now want to reuse this controller and .jsp page for editing the verry same object as an editing page. In my mind the form would look almost exactly the same. So I changed the handleRequest method. And got the form successfully populated. But now I cant handle the submit part. My guess is that because I override the handleRequest method, the onsubmit method stops working i.e. aint being called. I havn't learned how to handle Log4j properly yet, so I dont know if onSubmit is being called or not, besides from the fact, knowing that nothing is being entered/changed into the DB.

This is what my Controller class looks like:

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleFormController;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.RedirectView;

import tickets.domain.Ticket;
import tickets.service.TicketManager;

public class AddTicketFormController extends SimpleFormController {
	
	protected final Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(getClass());

	private TicketManager ticketManager = null;
	
	public ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
										HttpServletResponse response)
										throws ServletException, IOException {
		
		Ticket ticket = new Ticket();
		if(request.getParameter("id") != null && 
										!request.getParameter("id").equals("")) {
			ticket = ticketManager.getTicket(
								Integer.valueOf(request.getParameter("id")));
		}
		return new ModelAndView("addticket", "ticket", ticket);
	}
	
	public ModelAndView onSubmit(Object command) throws ServletException {
		
		Ticket ticket = (Ticket) command;
		logger.info("Added a ticket with severity: " + ticket.getSeverity());
		
		ticketManager.addTicket(ticket);
		
		logger.info("returning from AddTicketForm view to " + getSuccessView());
		
		return new ModelAndView(new RedirectView(getSuccessView()));
	}

	public TicketManager getTicketManager() {
		return ticketManager;
	}

	public void setTicketManager(TicketManager ticketManager) {
		this.ticketManager = ticketManager;
	}
	
//    protected Object formBackingObject(HttpServletRequest request) throws ServletException {
//        PriceIncrease priceIncrease = new PriceIncrease();
//        priceIncrease.setPercentage(20);
//        return priceIncrease;
//    }
}

When this part gets called from my "index.jsp" view, it successfully populates the form with the information. But then I cannot submit it. Instead the same page is loaded as if the handleRequest is being called instead of onSubmit.
I know the onSubmit method works as Ive tested it before, when handleRequest wassnt implemented.


Can I please get suggestions on how to solve this? So that I can use this controller and .jsp page for both adding and editing an object.
Suggestions on how to solve this problem with another approach is also welcome.
Should I add any other information?

[Al Coson]

It seems I was looking for the formbackingObject method.. I didnt know it did what it did, but it does what I need to do, that is, populate my form.