Question

I’m stuck in a situation where I’ve an input element in a JSP where user enters tags. E.g. java, foo, bar, anotherTag..etc

<c:url var="saveUrl" value="/create" />
    <form:form modelAttribute="myAttribute" method="POST"
        action="${saveUrl}">

        <form:input path="myTitle" />
        <form:textarea path="myPost" />

        <form:input type="text" id="tagInput"path="???" />

        <input type="submit" value="create" />
</form:form>

Now in my domain model corresponding to this input is a

private List<Tag> listOfTags

How to bind a csv to a List. If I enter listOfTags in the path(which is wrong for obvious reasons), I get incorrect binding exception.
How do I convert(or bind) a csv to a List so that the Spring form is submitted properly and the listOfTags get the tags entered in the JSP.
What is the best way to achieve it?

Please help.

Answer 1

I’m not sure but try this. Do a simple html input :

<input type="text" id="tagInput" name="myTags" />

And then in your controller do something like :

@RequestMapping(value="/create", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public void create(..., @ModelAttribute("myAttribute") MyClass myAttribute,
                    @RequestParam("myTags") String myTags, ...) {
    ...
    myAttribute.setListOfTags(Arrays.asList(myTags.split(",")));
    ...
}

Note : for more generic ways to bind and convert objects, you may want to take a look at PropertyEditors and Converters.