How can I use Spring MVC "form" tag instead of my "input" tags?

Question

What I have:

I have a generic JSP page that is used throughout my application for displaying certain entities. The code that I am interested in goes like this:

<form:form modelAttribute="object"/>
    <core:forEach items="${sections}" var="section" varStatus="itemStat">
        <core:forEach items="${section.fields}" var="fieldDef">
            <form:input path="${fieldDef.fieldName}"/>                                        
        </core:forEach>
    </core:forEach>
<form:form>

For each section, and for each field in that section, I have an input having the path fieldName, which is what I want to display from each field.

What I want:

I would like instead of the input to be a simple text, like a label.

What I have tried:

I am most certain that I can do it somehow with <form:label> but I can't really make it work. Making a <form:label path="${fieldDef.fieldName}" /> just tells the browser for which field I need the label, but doesn't get the actual value from it.

I have also tried something like ${object.fieldDef.fieldName}, but in order for this to work I would have to first analyze the value of ${fieldDef.fieldName}, which would give me the name of the column, and then do a ${object.column}, but column being a variable I haven't been able to make this work in any way.

Alternative:

An alternative would be to just make the inputs as disabled and remove the border with CSS, but that would be a dirty way and from what I saw it is also tricky for IE different versions. I am sure that I can handle it directly.

I am a little intrigued by the fact that <form:input path="..."> puts into the input what it finds corresponding to that path (same goes for other form elements), but with label it works different.

So, what I want is basically simple, but I haven't managed to find a way. If someone could shed some light, that would be great. Thanks in advance !

The form taglib is not JSTL. That's recognizeable as Struts or Spring MVC. Please read the form taglib URI and update your question accordingly. Also, read our JSTL wiki page to learn what JSTL really is: stackoverflow.com/tags/jstl/info — BalusC
– BalusC, Commented Jun 12, 2012 at 12:39

JoeH-Java · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-12 15:38:23Z

3

You could look into the spring bind tag. I haven't tried using it before but this may work for you, in place of the input tag

<spring:bind path="fieldDef.fieldName">
 ${status.value}
</spring:bind>

reference: http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/1.1.5/taglib/tag/BindTag.html

edited Jun 12, 2012 at 15:38

answered Jun 12, 2012 at 15:18

JoeH-Java

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Japan Trivedi · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-12 12:55:24Z

2

Instead of

<form:input path="${fieldDef.fieldName}"/>

use

<c:out value="${fieldDef.fieldName}"/>

It would display whatever value is there instead of creating a input field. Hope this helps you. Cheers.

answered Jun 12, 2012 at 12:55

Japan Trivedi

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1 Comment

Raul Rene Over a year ago

Doing that will just print out my column name, for example id or name. I want to print the value from ${object.name}. This is my problem. This is what I am seeking with this question.

JoeH-Java · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-12 15:11:21Z

2

Using the spring form tab, one option would be to use

<form:input disabled="true" path="${fieldDef.fieldName}"/>

To further make it not look like an input you could use CSS to style it to your preference.

Some css styles you could use:

background-color:#EEEEEE;border: 0px solid;

Update: You could look into the spring bind tag. I haven't tried using it before but this may work for you, in place of the input tag

<spring:bind path="fieldDef.fieldName">
     ${status.value}
</spring:bind>

edited Jun 12, 2012 at 15:11

answered Jun 12, 2012 at 13:06

JoeH-Java

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3 Comments

Raul Rene Over a year ago

As I mentioned in my initial post, I have thought about this but it is not a nice way to do it. Furthermore, even though it looks okay in Firefox or Chrome, in some versions of Internet Explorer the background-color: inherit does not really work, and some borders do not display okay. So I would like to do it in another way.

JoeH-Java Over a year ago

Have you looked in the spring:bind static.springsource.org/spring/docs/1.1.5/taglib/tag/…

Raul Rene Over a year ago

Yes, yes, yes !! This is what I was looking for. Thank you, sir! If you could post this as an answer rather than a comment, I could mark this question as resolved by choosing it.

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