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public class

SimpleFormController

extends AbstractFormController
java.lang.Object
   ↳ org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
     ↳ org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationObjectSupport
       ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator
         ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController
           ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.BaseCommandController
             ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractFormController
               ↳ org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleFormController
Known Direct Subclasses

This class is deprecated.
as of Spring 3.0, in favor of annotated controllers

Class Overview

Concrete FormController implementation that provides configurable form and success views, and an onSubmit chain for convenient overriding. Automatically resubmits to the form view in case of validation errors, and renders the success view in case of a valid submission.

The workflow of this Controller does not differ much from the one described in the AbstractFormController. The difference is that you do not need to implement showForm and processFormSubmission: A form view and a success view can be configured declaratively.

Workflow (in addition to the superclass):

  1. Call to processFormSubmission which inspects the Errors object to see if any errors have occurred during binding and validation.
  2. If errors occured, the controller will return the configured formView, showing the form again (possibly rendering according error messages).
  3. If isFormChangeRequest is overridden and returns true for the given request, the controller will return the formView too. In that case, the controller will also suppress validation. Before returning the formView, the controller will invoke onFormChange(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object), giving sub-classes a chance to make modification to the command object. This is intended for requests that change the structure of the form, which should not cause validation and show the form in any case.
  4. If no errors occurred, the controller will call onSubmit using all parameters, which in case of the default implementation delegates to onSubmit with just the command object. The default implementation of the latter method will return the configured successView. Consider implementing doSubmitAction(Object) doSubmitAction for simply performing a submit action and rendering the success view.

The submit behavior can be customized by overriding one of the onSubmit methods. Submit actions can also perform custom validation if necessary (typically database-driven checks), calling showForm in case of validation errors to show the form view again.

Exposed configuration properties (and those defined by superclass):

name default description
formView null Indicates what view to use when the user asks for a new form or when validation errors have occurred on form submission.
successView null Indicates what view to use when successful form submissions have occurred. Such a success view could e.g. display a submission summary. More sophisticated actions can be implemented by overriding one of the onSubmit() methods.

Summary

[Expand]
Inherited Constants
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.BaseCommandController
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator
[Expand]
Inherited Fields
From class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
Public Constructors
SimpleFormController()
Create a new SimpleFormController.
Public Methods
final String getFormView()
Return the name of the view that should be used for form display.
final String getSuccessView()
Return the name of the view that should be shown on successful submit.
final void setFormView(String formView)
Set the name of the view that should be used for form display.
final void setSuccessView(String successView)
Set the name of the view that should be shown on successful submit.
Protected Methods
void doSubmitAction(Object command)
Template method for submit actions.
boolean isFormChangeRequest(HttpServletRequest request)
Simpler isFormChangeRequest variant, called by the full variant isFormChangeRequest(HttpServletRequest, Object).
boolean isFormChangeRequest(HttpServletRequest request, Object command)
Determine whether the given request is a form change request.
void onFormChange(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors)
Called during form submission if isFormChangeRequest(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest) returns true.
void onFormChange(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command)
Simpler onFormChange variant, called by the full variant onFormChange(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException).
ModelAndView onSubmit(Object command, BindException errors)
Simpler onSubmit variant.
ModelAndView onSubmit(Object command)
Simplest onSubmit variant.
ModelAndView onSubmit(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors)
Submit callback with all parameters.
ModelAndView processFormSubmission(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors)
This implementation calls showForm(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, BindException) in case of errors, and delegates to the full onSubmit(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException)'s variant else.
Map referenceData(HttpServletRequest request, Object command, Errors errors)
Create a reference data map for the given request and command, consisting of bean name/bean instance pairs as expected by ModelAndView.
Map referenceData(HttpServletRequest request)
Create a reference data map for the given request.
ModelAndView showForm(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, BindException errors)
This implementation shows the configured form view, delegating to the analogous showForm(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, BindException, Map) variant with a "controlModel" argument.
ModelAndView showForm(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, BindException errors, Map controlModel)
This implementation shows the configured form view.
boolean suppressValidation(HttpServletRequest request, Object command)
This implementation delegates to isFormChangeRequest(HttpServletRequest, Object): A form change request changes the appearance of the form and should not get validated but just show the new form.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractFormController
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.BaseCommandController
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController
From class org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator
From class org.springframework.web.context.support.WebApplicationObjectSupport
From class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
From class java.lang.Object
From interface org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware
From interface org.springframework.web.context.ServletContextAware
From interface org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.Controller

Public Constructors

public SimpleFormController ()

Create a new SimpleFormController.

Subclasses should set the following properties, either in the constructor or via a BeanFactory: commandName, commandClass, sessionForm, formView, successView. Note that commandClass doesn't need to be set when overriding formBackingObject, as this determines the class anyway.

See Also

Public Methods

public final String getFormView ()

Return the name of the view that should be used for form display.

public final String getSuccessView ()

Return the name of the view that should be shown on successful submit.

public final void setFormView (String formView)

Set the name of the view that should be used for form display.

public final void setSuccessView (String successView)

Set the name of the view that should be shown on successful submit.

Protected Methods

protected void doSubmitAction (Object command)

Template method for submit actions. Called by the default implementation of the simplest onSubmit(Object) variant.

This is the preferred submit callback to implement if you want to perform an action (like storing changes to the database) and then render the success view with the command and Errors instance as model. You don't need to care about the success ModelAndView here.

Parameters
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
Throws
Exception in case of errors
See Also

protected boolean isFormChangeRequest (HttpServletRequest request)

Simpler isFormChangeRequest variant, called by the full variant isFormChangeRequest(HttpServletRequest, Object).

The default implementation returns false

Parameters
request current HTTP request
Returns
  • whether the given request is a form change request
See Also

protected boolean isFormChangeRequest (HttpServletRequest request, Object command)

Determine whether the given request is a form change request. A form change request changes the appearance of the form and should always show the new form, without validation.

Gets called by suppressValidation(HttpServletRequest) and processFormSubmission(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException). Consequently, this single method determines to suppress validation and to show the form view in any case.

The default implementation delegates to isFormChangeRequest(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest).

Parameters
request current HTTP request
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
Returns
  • whether the given request is a form change request
See Also

protected void onFormChange (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors)

Called during form submission if isFormChangeRequest(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest) returns true. Allows subclasses to implement custom logic to modify the command object to directly modify data in the form.

The default implementation delegates to onFormChange(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException).

Parameters
request current servlet request
response current servlet response
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
errors validation errors holder, allowing for additional custom validation
Throws
Exception in case of errors
See Also

protected void onFormChange (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command)

Simpler onFormChange variant, called by the full variant onFormChange(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException).

The default implementation is empty.

Parameters
request current servlet request
response current servlet response
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
Throws
Exception in case of errors
See Also

protected ModelAndView onSubmit (Object command, BindException errors)

Simpler onSubmit variant. Called by the default implementation of the onSubmit(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException) variant with all parameters.

The default implementation calls onSubmit(Object), using the returned ModelAndView if actually implemented in a subclass. Else, the default behavior will apply: rendering the success view with the command and Errors instance as model.

Subclasses can override this to provide custom submission handling that does not need request and response.

Call errors.getModel() to populate the ModelAndView model with the command and the Errors instance, under the specified command name, as expected by the "spring:bind" tag.

Parameters
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
errors Errors instance without errors
Returns
  • the prepared model and view
Throws
Exception in case of errors
See Also

protected ModelAndView onSubmit (Object command)

Simplest onSubmit variant. Called by the default implementation of the onSubmit(Object, BindException) variant.

This implementation calls doSubmitAction(Object) and returns null as ModelAndView, making the calling onSubmit method perform its default rendering of the success view.

Subclasses can override this to provide custom submission handling that just depends on the command object. It's preferable to use either onSubmit(Object, BindException) or doSubmitAction(Object), though: Use the former when you want to build your own ModelAndView; use the latter when you want to perform an action and forward to the successView.

Parameters
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
Returns
  • the prepared model and view, or null for default (that is, rendering the configured "successView")
Throws
Exception in case of errors
See Also

protected ModelAndView onSubmit (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors)

Submit callback with all parameters. Called in case of submit without errors reported by the registered validator, or on every submit if no validator.

The default implementation delegates to onSubmit(Object, BindException). For simply performing a submit action and rendering the specified success view, consider implementing doSubmitAction(Object) rather than an onSubmit variant.

Subclasses can override this to provide custom submission handling like storing the object to the database. Implementations can also perform custom validation and call showForm to return to the form. Do not implement multiple onSubmit methods: In that case, just this method will be called by the controller.

Call errors.getModel() to populate the ModelAndView model with the command and the Errors instance, under the specified command name, as expected by the "spring:bind" tag.

Parameters
request current servlet request
response current servlet response
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
errors Errors instance without errors (subclass can add errors if it wants to)
Returns
  • the prepared model and view, or null
Throws
Exception in case of errors
See Also

protected ModelAndView processFormSubmission (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors)

This implementation calls showForm(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, BindException) in case of errors, and delegates to the full onSubmit(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException)'s variant else.

This can only be overridden to check for an action that should be executed without respect to binding errors, like a cancel action. To just handle successful submissions without binding errors, override one of the onSubmit methods or doSubmitAction(Object).

Parameters
request current servlet request
response current servlet response
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
errors holder without errors (subclass can add errors if it wants to)
Returns
  • the prepared model and view, or null
Throws
Exception
See Also

protected Map referenceData (HttpServletRequest request, Object command, Errors errors)

Create a reference data map for the given request and command, consisting of bean name/bean instance pairs as expected by ModelAndView.

The default implementation delegates to referenceData(HttpServletRequest). Subclasses can override this to set reference data used in the view.

Parameters
request current HTTP request
command form object with request parameters bound onto it
errors validation errors holder
Returns
  • a Map with reference data entries, or null if none
Throws
Exception in case of invalid state or arguments
See Also

protected Map referenceData (HttpServletRequest request)

Create a reference data map for the given request. Called by the referenceData(HttpServletRequest, Object, Errors) variant with all parameters.

The default implementation returns null. Subclasses can override this to set reference data used in the view.

Parameters
request current HTTP request
Returns
  • a Map with reference data entries, or null if none
Throws
Exception in case of invalid state or arguments
See Also

protected ModelAndView showForm (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, BindException errors)

This implementation shows the configured form view, delegating to the analogous showForm(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, BindException, Map) variant with a "controlModel" argument.

Can be called within onSubmit(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException) implementations, to redirect back to the form in case of custom validation errors (errors not determined by the validator).

Can be overridden in subclasses to show a custom view, writing directly to the response or preparing the response before rendering a view.

If calling showForm with a custom control model in subclasses, it's preferable to override the analogous showForm version with a controlModel argument (which will handle both standard form showing and custom form showing then).

Parameters
request current HTTP request
response current HTTP response
errors validation errors holder
Returns
  • the prepared form view, or null if handled directly
Throws
Exception
See Also

protected ModelAndView showForm (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, BindException errors, Map controlModel)

This implementation shows the configured form view.

Can be called within onSubmit(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object, BindException) implementations, to redirect back to the form in case of custom validation errors (errors not determined by the validator).

Can be overridden in subclasses to show a custom view, writing directly to the response or preparing the response before rendering a view.

Parameters
request current HTTP request
errors validation errors holder
controlModel model map containing controller-specific control data (e.g. current page in wizard-style controllers or special error message)
Returns
  • the prepared form view
Throws
Exception in case of invalid state or arguments
See Also

protected boolean suppressValidation (HttpServletRequest request, Object command)

This implementation delegates to isFormChangeRequest(HttpServletRequest, Object): A form change request changes the appearance of the form and should not get validated but just show the new form.

Parameters
request current HTTP request
command the command object to validate
Returns
  • whether to suppress validation for the given request
See Also