List as form backing object using Spring 3 MVC, correct syntax?

Question

I want to do something like this, where Foo is a class with one String field name, and getter/setter:

Answer 1

Although the above answer works, here's an alternate that does not require you to create a wrapper class/ form class.

Model And Controller

public class Foo {
    private String name;
    private List<Foo> fooList; //**must create this list, also getter and setter**
    public Foo() {
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
    public List getFooList() {
        return fooList;
    }

    public void setFooList(String fooList) {
        this.fooList = fooList;
    }

}

@Controller("/")
public class FooController{

    //returns the ModelAttribute fooListWrapper with the view fooForm
    @RequestMapping(value = "/FOO", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String getFooList(Model model) {
        List<Foo> fooList = service.getFooList();

        model.addAttribute("fooList", fooList);

        return "list_foo"; //name of the view
    }

    @RequestMapping(value = "/FOO", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public String postFooList(@ModelAttribute("foo")Foo foo, Model model) {
        List<Foo> list = foo.getFooList(); // **This is your desired object. 
        //If you debug this code, you can easily find this is the list of  
        //all the foo objects that you wanted, provided you pass them properly. 
        //Check the jsp file to see one of the ways of passing such a list of objects**
        //Rest of the code
    }

}

JSP View

<form:form id="form" action="<paste-target-url-here>" method="POST" modelAttribute="fooList">


    <c:forEach items="${fooList}" varStatus="i">
           <form:input path="fooList[${i.index}].name" type="text"/>
           <!-- Here you are setting the data in the appropriate index which will be caught in the controller -->
    </c:forEach>


    <button>submit</button>
</form:form>

Answer 2

Maybe this answersyour question:

CONTROLLER :

@Controller("/")
public class FooController{

    //returns the ModelAttribute fooListWrapper with the view fooForm
    @RequestMapping(value = "/FOO", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String getFooForm(Model model) {
        FooListWrapper fooListWrapper = new FooListWrapper();
        fooListWrapper.add(new Foo());
        fooListWrapper.add(new Foo());

        //add as many FOO you need

        model.addAttribute("fooListWrapper", fooListWrapper);

        return "fooForm";
    }

    @RequestMapping(value = "/FOO", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public String postFooList(@ModelAttribute("fooListWrapper")FooListWrapper fooListWrapper, Model model) {

        //...........
    }

}

FOO LIST WRAPPER :

public class FooListWrapper {
    private List<Foo> fooList;

    public FooListWrapper() {
         this.fooList = new ArrayList<Foo>();
    }

    public List<Foo> getFooList() {
        return fooList;
    }

    public void setFooList(List<Foo> fooList) {
        this.fooList = fooList;
    }

    public void add(Foo foo) {
        this.fooList.add(foo);
    }
}

FOO CLASS :

public class Foo {
    private String name;

    public Foo() {
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
}

JSP VIEW (name = fooForm):

<c:url var="fooUrl" value="/FOO"/>
<form:form id="frmFoo" action="${fooUrl}" method="POST" modelAttribute="fooListWrapper">


    <c:forEach items="${fooListWrapper.fooList}" varStatus="i">
           <form:input path="fooList[${i.index}].name" type="text"/>
    </c:forEach>


    <button>submit</button>
</form:form>