Spring MVC Data Binding Error

Question

I'm getting the following error when I try to retrieve the form results in controller method:

org.springframework.validation.BindException: org.springframework.validation.BeanPropertyBindingResult: 1 errors Field error in object 'search' on field 'clients': rejected value [14]; codes [typeMismatch.search.clients,typeMismatch.clients,typeMismatch.java.util.List,typeMismatch]; arguments [org.springframework.context.support.DefaultMessageSourceResolvable: codes [search.clients,clients]; arguments []; default message [clients]]; default message [Failed to convert property value of type 'java.lang.String' to required type 'java.util.List' for property 'clients'; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot convert value of type [java.lang.String] to required type [com.Client] for property 'clients[0]': no matching editors or conversion strategy found]

Model Object looks like this:

 public class SearchForm {
     private String name;
     private List<Client> clients;
     //getters and setters
 }
 public class Client {
     private String name;
     private Int id;
 }

form:

<form:form method="POST", name="searchresults.html" modelattibute="search">
   <form:input path="name"/>
   <form:checkboxes path="clients" items="{clientsList}" itemsValue="id" itemsLabel="name"/>
</form:form>

this form displays the values correctly on the html page but when I click the submit button I get the above error

Answer 1

The browser will only send a list of client IDs when the form is submitted. How could Spring know how to convert each ID into a Client instance. You either have to tell it how to do, or add a List<String> clientIds property to your bean, and make the form:checkboxes tag use this property instead of clients as its path.