Spring’s Bind with Collections

Question

I haven’t been able to find a solution on how to resolve this issue yet, after researching and researching I found something on how I can bind elements of my form to a Collection in a POJO. But first I would like to explain the business rule of the module in which I am developing to help the reader to orient, then even indicate me another solution if it is necessary.

I have a form in which I can register "travel passengers" and later popular a table for when it is submitted to Collection to be persisted in bank. Below the image for easy viewing:

Soon I created my Entity of Customer in which will contain a Set of passengers:

Customer Java.

@Entity
public class Customer implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name="id_customer")
    private Long idCustomer;

    @Column(name="birth_date")
    @DateTimeFormat(pattern = "dd/MM/yyyy")
    @Temporal(TemporalType.DATE)
    private Date birthDate;

    @Column(name="email")
    private String email;

    @Column(name="first_name")
    private String firstName;

    @Column(name="gender")
    private String gender;

    @Column(name="last_name")
    private String lastName;

    @OneToOne(cascade=CascadeType.PERSIST)
    @JoinColumn(name="fk_document")
    private Document document;


    @OneToOne(cascade=CascadeType.PERSIST)
    @JoinColumn(name="fk_customerPhone")
    private CustomerPhone customerPhone;


    @OneToMany(cascade=CascadeType.PERSIST)
    @JoinColumn(name="fk_customer")
    private Set<Passenger> passenger = new HashSet<Passenger>();

    @OneToOne(cascade=CascadeType.PERSIST)
    @JoinColumn(name="fk_customerAddress")
    private CustomerAddress customerAddress;


    public Customer() {
    }
    //Getters and Setters
}

Passenger java.

@Entity
public class Passenger implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name="id_passengers")
    private Long id;

    @Column(name="birth_date")
    private String birthDate;

    @Column(name="p_email")
    private String email;

    @Column(name="p_first_name")
    private String firstName;

    @Column(name="p_last_name")
    private String lastName;

    @Column(name="main_tel")
    private String mainTel;


    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    @Column(name="family_bond")
    private FamilyBond familyBond;


    @OneToOne(cascade=CascadeType.PERSIST)
    @JoinColumn(name="fk_documentPassenger")
    private DocumentPassenger documentPassenger;


    public Passenger() {
    }
    //Getter and Setter

}

My controller:

@Controller
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
@RequestMapping("/auth")
public class CustomerController {

    @Autowired
    public CustomerFacade customerFacade;

    @RequestMapping("/customer")
    public ModelAndView getMenuService(Model model){
        List<Country> countriesList = customerFacade.getCountriesList();    
        model.addAttribute("countriesList", countriesList);

        return new ModelAndView("customer/newCustomer", "customer", new Customer());
    }

Well, now that the bug catches! Because I want to perform the bind of Collection with some components inside my form in the view.

After searching a bit I ended up finding this approach:

<f:form id="transition-duration-demo" class="transition-form" modelAttribute="customer" method="post">
   <div class="aling-form col-sm-12 nest text" style="padding-top:25px">
   <c:forEach items="${customer.passenger}" var="passenger" varStatus="status">

   <div class="box02">
      <f:input id="passenger-name" placeholder="Nome do Passageiro" type="text" path="passenger[${status.index}].firstName" class="form-control"/>
   </div>
   <!--Continua-->
</f:form>

Well, the components don’t show up on the screen, but I think it’s because my list is null!

Can anyone help me with this question is I doing it the right way? Has anyone ever used the Autopopulatinglist of Spring and can give me some information?

Answer 1

Well, after the help of a friend of the GUJ forum and a little research I came to the conclusion that to popular my list would have the possibility d do by two ways, AJAX or removing my modal from mine form main and creating another form calling an action in my controller and thus populating a List.

I chose to do it by submitting a separate form, as I don’t have much intimacy with AJAX calls yet. Below follows the implementation:

Close-up Register New Passenger

            <div class="aling-form col-sm-12 nest text" style="padding-top:25px">           

                <div class="box01">
                    <select id="familyBond" class="form-control" name="familyBond">
                        <option value="null" label="-- Vinculo do Passageiro --" />
                        <c:forEach items="${listOfBondNames}" var="bond">
                            <option value="">${bond.value}</option>
                        </c:forEach>
                    </select>
                </div>

                    <div class="box02">
                        <input id="passenger-name" placeholder="Nome do Passageiro" name="firstName" type="text" class="form-control"/>
                    </div>

                    <div class="box01">
                        <input id="passenger-lastName" placeholder="Sobrenome do Passageiro" type="text" name="lastName" class="form-control"/>
                    </div>

                    <div class="box02">
                        <div class="input-group ">
                            <span class="input-group-addon btn-success"><i class="fa fontawesome-envelope-alt"></i></span>
                            <input id="passenger-email" placeholder="E-mail" type="text"  name="email" class="form-control"/>
                        </div>
                    </div>

                    <div class="box01">
                        <div class="input-group ">
                            <span class="input-group-addon btn-success"><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i></span>
                            <input id="passenger-phone" placeholder="Telefone Principal" type="text" name="mainTel" class="form-control"/>
                        </div>
                    </div>

                    <div class="box02">
                        <div class="input-group ">
                            <span class="input-group-addon btn-success"><i class="fa fa-calendar"></i></span>
                            <input id="passenger-birth" placeholder="Data de Nascimento" type="text" name="birthDate" class="form-control"/>
                        </div>
                    </div>

                    <div class="box01">
                        <input id="passenger-rg" placeholder="RG" type="text" name="documentPassenger.rg" class="form-control" style="margin:0px;"/>
                    </div>

                    <div class="box02">
                        <input id="passenger-cpf" placeholder="CPF" type="text" name="documentPassenger.cpf" class="form-control"/>
                    </div>
                    <input type="hidden" name="${_csrf.parameterName}" value="${_csrf.token}" />

                </div>

          </div>
          <div class="modal-footer clear" style="margin:0px;">
            <button type="button" class="btn btn-danger" data-dismiss="modal">Cancelar</button>
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Cadastrar</button>
          </div>
          </form>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

Soon he calls the action:

private List<Passenger> passengerList = new ArrayList<Passenger>();

    @RequestMapping(value="/addPassenger", method=RequestMethod.POST)
    public ModelAndView addPassenger(Passenger passenger, Model model){
        passengerList.add(passenger);

        ModelAndView mv = new ModelAndView("service/newService");
        mv.addObject("passengerList", passengerList);
        mv.addObject("customer", new Customer());
        initializeComponents(model);
       return mv;
    }

With this approach I have my passengerList populated for when submitting my main form I apanes set the list in bean.