Question

I have a spring form, with backing object that includes a LazyList – works hunky dory.

The form initally shows:

<tr><td>
<form:textarea path="myList[0]" cssClass="myClass" rows="2" cols="35"/>
</td><tr>
<tr><td>
<form:textarea path="myList[1]" cssClass="myClass" rows="2" cols="35"/>
</td><tr>

When a user focusses on the final textarea I want another one to be appended. The html and javascript I have OK, its the binding to the spring backing object that is a problem, my javascript so far:

var myStr =  '<tr><td>'+
    '<form:textarea path="myList[2]" cssClass="myClass" rows="2" cols="35"/>'+
    '</td><tr>'     

function myAppend(){
jq('#myTable tr:last').find("textarea").unbind('focus');
jq('#myTable tr:last').after(myStr);
jq('#instructionTable tr:last').find("textarea").bind('focus', function() {
    myAppend();
    });
}

However the rendering is screwed up … any tips ?

I’ve found this, which performs and ajax call for each new line. Is their any other option ?

Answer 1

The spring <form:textarea ... /> tag is evaluated on server side.
It renders the according HTML Element based on the given tag parameters.
So a:

<form:textarea path="name"/>

is rendered to

<textarea id="name" name="name"></textarea>

So you have to append a <textarea /> Element with your javascript.

The reason for using the tag is to bind the submited value to the ‘commandBean‘ provided by your spring controller.