How to create forms in a loop in Spring MVC

[Honey Agarwal]

Hi,

I have a list of data picked from mysql and I am presenting it in a loop in jsp using Spring MVC framework. Each loop has its own form (like in facebook posts).

<c:forEach var="f" items="${feeds}">
                    <form:form method="POST" commandName="feedDomain">


                            <button type="submit" value="${f.feedId}" name="mail"
                                class="btn btn-success btn-block btn-large" style="width: 60%">Mail
                                the feed</button>

                    </form:form>
                </c:forEach>                         

Now the question is how to handle each form? For the page carrying above code, the controller is:

 @Controller
     @RequestMapping(value = "/feed.html")
      public class FeedController {

    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView showForm(
        @RequestParam(value = "var", required = false) String var)
        throws Exception {
    ModelAndView modelAndView = new ModelAndView("feed");
    modelAndView.addObject("feedDomain", new FeedDomain());
    try {
        FeedService feedService = new FeedService();
        List<FeedDomain> feedDomainList = feedService.getAllFeeds();
        modelAndView.addObject("feeds", feedDomainList);
    } catch (Exception exception) {
        exception.printStackTrace();
        throw exception;
    }
    return modelAndView;
}


@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ModelAndView addFeed(@RequestParam("mail") String feedId,
        @Valid FeedDomain feedDomain, BindingResult result,
        HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response,
        Model modelMap) throws Exception {

    try {
        if (result.hasErrors()) {
            // if validator failed


        } else {
            // form success
            System.out.println("Value is " + feedId);

            return new ModelAndView();
        }
    } catch (Exception exception) {
        throw exception;
    }
}} 

If there would be only one form, addFeed would be called. But how to manage here? Can anyone suggest me anything?

[Nam Ha Minh]

I don't understand why you need that? I think there is only a form submitted at a time so there is no need to check which form.
In case you have a good reason to use, I suggest you to use a hidden field in the form and in the controller you can check value of that field.

[Honey Agarwal]

Nam Ha Minh wrote:I don't understand why you need that? I think there is only a form submitted at a time so there is no need to check which form.
In case you have a good reason to use, I suggest you to use a hidden field in the form and in the controller you can check value of that field.

Thanks...that worked but I have to use new form for every loop for that to work otherwise I will get id or any hidden value of the first post.

[Mark Spritzler]

Sorry, but that is not the correct way to display a list of Links or buttons where each is for an "id" that you want to pass. You definitely do not want a form tag for each row in that list.

Personally, I like just having them as links where the id is added to the URL either as a path variable or as a request parameter. Then I use CSS to make the link look like a button. The link would then do a get instead of a post.

If you still want buttons, I would still set the button's action to include the id of that row as a request parameter.

Then your controller method is mapped to one single method which takes in the @RequestParam("nameOfParamHere") or @PathVariable.

Mark