Question

I’m new to Grails and now I’m trying to retrieve objects/model from a controller to a template using AJAX. I want to make it so that sms properties would accessible to messageBox template, but this would always return me a null value. Could anyone help me with this? Any answer would be appreciated, here’s my current code.

On my client

    <g:form>
    <label for="id">Sms ID </label>
    <g:textField name="id" />
    <g:submitToRemote value="search" update="msgBox"
                  url="[controller:'sms', action:'send']"/>
 </g:form>
<g:render template="messageBox" model="${[sms:sms]}/>

My controller

SmsController{

def send = {
  def sms = new Sms(...)
  //assume properties have been set
  ...
  ...
  render(template: messageBox, model:[sms:sms])
 }
}

and my _messageBox.gsp

<div id="msgBox">
    <span>Sms Property 1: ${sms?.property1}</span>
    <span>Sms Property 2: ${sms?.property2}</span>
    <span>Sms Property 3: ${sms?.property3}</span>
</div>

Answer 1

There seems to be a few logistical errors here

First, you seem to be rending the messageBox template twice. In your ‘client’ gsp you are calling…

  <g:render template="messageBox" model="${[sms:sms]}/>

On page load ‘sms’ will always be null unless you are provided one on the page load. Then you also seem to be calling it again in your controller…

render(template: messageBox, model:[sms:sms])

Also, I would move the div:’msgBox’ outside of the template and into your client something like…

  <g:form>
    <label for="id">Sms ID </label>
    <g:textField name="id" />
    <g:submitToRemote value="search" update="msgBox"
                  url="[controller:'sms', action:'send']"/>
 </g:form>
<div id="msgBox">Waiting for some AJAX!</div>

Lastly, make sure you have a javascript library in your header like prototype or jquery. I’m not sure this will solve your problems but it will be a good start. Let me know!