seems like @ModelAttribute does not help in keeping values of a form after submission

Question

There are some questions about similar problem to mine but none of them helped me.I have a form that its fields get empitied after submission, I am using @ModelAttribute and I suppose it should keep the values but it does not. I also used @SessionAttributes("contact") but it did not help. Commented parts of the code are some of the methods that Ive tried already.

How to keep values of a form after submission?

@RequestMapping(value = "/contact", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public ModelAndView contactForm() {
        return new ModelAndView("contact", "command", new Contact());
    }



    @RequestMapping(value = "/contact", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processForm(
        @Valid @ModelAttribute("Contact") Contact contact,
        BindingResult result, SessionStatus status, Model m) {
    if (result.hasErrors()) {
        System.err.println("errors");

    } else {
        System.err.println("Contact Name is:" + contact.getName());
        m.addAttribute("message", "Successfully added");
        // m.addAttribute("name", "Jack"); // does not work
        // m.addAttribute("contact.name", "Jack"); // does not work
        // m.addAttribute(contact); //does not work

        // status.setComplete();

    }
    // return new ModelAndView("contact", "command", contact); // the page wont be shown at all
    return "contact";

}

view

<form class="form-horizontal" role="form" method="post"
                action="/contact">

                <div class="form-group">
                    <div class="col-md-12">
                        <label class="sr-only" for="exampleInputName2">Name 
                        </label> <input type="text" class="form-control" id="name"
                            name="name" placeholder="Your name" value="">
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="form-group">
                    <div class="col-md-12">
                        <label class="sr-only" for="exampleInputName2">Email
                            Address</label> <input type="email" class="form-control" id="email"
                            name="email" placeholder="Your email" value="">
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="form-group">
                    <div class="col-md-12">
                        <label class="sr-only" for="exampleInputName2">Phone
                            Number</label> <input type="number" class="form-control" id="phone"
                            name="phone" placeholder="Phone number" value="">
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="form-group">
                    <div class="col-md-12">
                        <label class="sr-only" for="exampleInputName2">Enquiry</label>
                        <textarea class="form-control" rows="4" name="message"
                            placeholder="Please enter your enquiry"></textarea>
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="form-group">
                    <div class="col-md-2 " style="float: right;">
                        <input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Send"
                            class="btn btn-primary">
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="form-group">
                    <div class="col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-2">
                        <! Will be used to display an alert to the user>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </form>

After submission it shows "Successfully added" message but the fields are blank.

Answer 1

As your code is written, you don't even need @ModelAttribute in your POST handler method. @ModelAttribute is for loading a model attribute from Flash or Session or a @ModelAttribute method. Spring can load Handler Method POJOs without @ModelAttributes.

For a quick fix, add your contact back into your model. Otherwise, please follow my answer here for the correct solution:

Spring MVC: Validation, Post-Redirect-Get, Partial Updates, Optimistic Concurrency, Field Security

Answer 2

I suppose you are are using Jsp age as view. In your you have model Attribute

<form:form modelAttribute="Contact">

that said, Just use

m.addAttribute("name",contact.getName());

and in your view you can get this value by ${name}

to keep this value for entire session just declare a String name = null; under controller and put the value by your methods.

name = contact.getName();

---

<%@ taglib prefix="form" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags/form"  %>
<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags"  %>

<form:form modelAttribute="Contact">
        <form:errors path="*"></form:errors>

            <div class="form-group">
                <label class="control-label col-lg-2 col-lg-2" for="name" >Name</label>
                <div class="col-lg-10">
                    <form:input id="name" path="name" type="text" class="form:input-large"/>
                    <form:errors path="name" cssClass="text-danger"></form:errors>
                </div>
            </div>
</form>

Also modify your controller method to return proper error:

String name = null;

@RequestMapping(value = "/contact", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processForm(
    @Valid @ModelAttribute("Contact") Contact contact,
    BindingResult result, Model model) {
    if(result.hasErrors()){
        return "contact";  // jsp page from which form was submitted
    }
    model.addAttribute("name",contact.getName);
    name = contact.getName();
    return "anyJspPageName";
}