Form values are null in post request in play framework

forms, java, jsp, playframework, playframework-2.0

Solution

Here is how I would do that:

template

@(message: String, contactForm: Form[Contact])

@import helper._

@main("Contact") {
<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen" href="@routes.Assets.at("stylesheets/contact.css")">
<div id="pageContainer">
    <div id="form">
        <div id="topText">
            <p>Have a question or need some assistance? Let us know and we'll get back to you ASAP.</p>
        </div>
        <br/>
        @form(routes.Home.contact()) {
            <div id="contactInfo">
                <label class="contactLabel">First Name:</label> @inputText(contactForm("firstName"), 'class -> "contactInput"') <br />
                <label class="contactLabel">Last Name:</label> @inputText(contactForm("lastName"), 'class -> "contactInput"') <br />
                <label class="contactLabel">Email:</label> @inputText(contactForm("email"), 'class -> "contactInput"') <br />
                <label class="contactLabel">Company:</label> @inputText(contactForm("company"), 'class -> "contactInput"') <br />
                <input type="hidden" id="hidden" name="hidden"></input>
                <p id="crap">@message</p>
            </div>
            <br/>
            <div id="message">
                <label class="contactLabel">Message:</label><textarea cols="50" rows="10"></textarea>
            </div>
            <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
        }
    </div>
</div>
}

Class Contact

public class Contact {
    public String firstName;
    public String lastName;
    public String email;
    public String company;
    // other stuff
}

Controller

public static Result contact() {
    Form<Contact> contactForm = form(Contact.class).bindFromRequest();
    if (contactForm.hasErrors()) {
        // process
    } else {
        // contactForm.get().firstName should be filled with the correct data
        return ok(views.html.contact.render("message", contactForm)); 
    }
}

Does it work for you ? You should take a look at the Play2 documentation about these topics:

- JavaForms

- JavaForm Helpers

Edit

if you can explain why the way I was doing it previously didn't work

I'm not sure about that, but I can see one problem in your code, you don't have to call `data()` on the dynamic form, using directly `DynamicForm.get()` is sufficient, so `first = form.get("firstName")` is sufficient.

Besides as you can see from the DynamicForm Javadoc

get(java.lang.String key)

Gets the concrete value if the submission was a success.

The internal map behind `DynamicForm` has values if there is no errors, so you may check with `hasErrors` before actually getting concrete values from field.

From my point of view, it is better and easier to use the `form(Contact.class).bindFromRequest()` style that will fill an instance of class `Contact`, this without saying that fields can be validated using Java annotations.

Problem

Original source