Spring controllers and ajax

[Jason Nesbitt]

Is it possible to have a Spring controller return JSON formatted data instead of a physical view (jsp file)? All of the interfaces I have seen require you to return a ModelAndView. I could achieve what I want to by using plain servlets but I'd like to take advantage of Spring's IOC features.

Thank you

Jason

[Adeel Ansari]

Here is the example code snippet using json-simple.jar,

    @RequestMapping("/fetchCountryCode.html")
    public ModelAndView fetchCountryCode(@RequestParam("id") Integer id, 
            HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException{
        String code = countryDao.getCountryCodeById(id);
        JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject();
        jsonObj.put("code", code);
        response.getWriter().print(jsonObj.toString());
        return null;
    }

Cheers.

[Mark Spritzler]

You can return just a String, you can return null, you can return a View technology object like say JstlView, and also you can just return an object that is the Model, it doesn't always have to be a ModelAndView object.

Mark

[Mark Spritzler]

Oh, and Spring also has Spring JavaScript to help with Ajax.

Mark

[Adeel Ansari]

Originally posted by Mark Spritzler:
....and also you can just return an object that is the Model, it doesn't always have to be a ModelAndView object.

Actually, I am having Object here. Changed to match the question.

[Adeel Ansari]

Originally posted by Mark Spritzler:
Oh, and Spring also has Spring JavaScript to help with Ajax.

Yeah, came across this but haven't tried it.