java.lang.IllegalStateException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'category' available as request attribute

annotations, hibernate, java, spring, spring-form

Solution

If you're getting to `index.jsp` through something like `http://localhost:8080/yourapp`, I'll assume you have a `<welcome-file>` for it.

This means that the `index.jsp` generates the HTML without any pre-processing by Spring. You're trying to render this

<form:form method="POST" commandName="category" modelAttribute="category" action="search_category">
    <form:input path="category_name" /> 
    <input type="submit" value="Submit">  
</form:form>

where `<form:form>` is from Spring's tag library. First, note that you are using both `commandName` and `modelAttribute`. This is redundant. Use one or the other, not both. Second, when you specify either of these, the tag implementation looks for a `HttpServletRequest` attribute with the name specified. In your case, no such attribute was added to the `HttpServletRequest` attributes. This is because the Servlet container forwarded to your `index.jsp` directly.

Instead of doing that, create a new `@Controller` handler method which will added an attribute to the model and forward to the `index.jsp` view.

@RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String welcomePage(Model model) {
    model.addAttribute("category", new Category()); // the Category object is used as a template to generate the form
    return "index";
}

You can get rid of this

<!--  Set the default page as index.jsp -->
<mvc:view-controller path="/" view-name="index"/>

Also, move any `mvc` configuration from your `applicationContext.xml` file to your `servlet-context.xml` file. That's where it belongs. Here's why.

Problem

I looked almost all answers related this problem on the web but could not figure out the problem in my code. Here is my JSP page. ``` <form:form method="POST" commandName="category" modelAttribute="category" action="search_category"> <form:input path="category_name" /> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </form:form> ``` When I delete ``` <form:input path="category_name" /> ``` It works fine. I can communicate with my controller. So the problem is related to this line. ``` @Controller public class SearchCategory { @Autowired private CategoryService categoryService; @RequestMapping(value = "/search_category", method = RequestMethod.POST) public @ResponseBody String searchCategoryFromDatabase(@ModelAttribute("category") Category category, BindingResult result){ return "something"; } } ``` Here is my web.xml ``` <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"> <!-- Processes application requests --> <servlet> <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name> <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class> <init-param> <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name> <param-value>/WEB-INF/servlet-context.xml</param-value> </init-param> <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping> <!-- The definition of the Root Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters --> <context-param> <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name> <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value> </context-param> <filter> <filter-name>hibernateFilter</filter-name> <filter-class>org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter</filter-class> </filter> <filter-mapping> <filter-name>hibernateFilter</filter-name> <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> </filter-mapping> <listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class> </listener> </web-app> ``` This is my servlet-context.xml ``` <!-- Set the default page as index.jsp --> <mvc:view-controller path="/" view-name="index"/> <!-- Map resources --> <mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/, classpath:/META-INF/web-resources/" /> <!-- Map simple view name such as "test" into /WEB-INF/views/test.jsp --> <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver"> <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/" /> <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" /> </bean> ``` And my applicationContext.xml ``` <!-- Enable @Controller annotation support --> <mvc:annotation-driven /> <context:annotation-config/> <!-- Set the default page as index.jsp --> <mvc:view-controller path="/" view-name="index"/> <!-- Map resources --> <mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/, classpath:/META-INF/web-resources/" /> <!-- Map simple view name such as "test" into /WEB-INF/views/test.jsp --> <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver"> <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/" /> <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" /> </bean> <!-- Scan classpath for annotations (eg: @Service, @Repository etc) --> <context:component-scan base-package="com.XXXX"/> <!-- JDBC Data Source. It is assumed you have MySQL running on localhost port 3306 with username root and blank password. Change below if it's not the case --> <bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close"> <property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/> <property name="url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/XXXX"/> <property name="username" value="XXXX"/> <property name="password" value="XXXX"/> <property name="validationQuery" value="SELECT 1"/> </bean> <!-- Hibernate Session Factory --> <bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean"> <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/> <property name="configLocation"> <value>classpath:hibernate.cfg.xml</value> </property> <property name="packagesToScan"> <array> <value>com.XXXX</value> </array> </property> <property name="hibernateProperties"> <value> hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect </value> </property> </bean> <!-- Hibernate Transaction Manager --> <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.HibernateTransactionManager"> <property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory"/> </bean> <!-- Activates annotation based transaction management --> <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"/> ``` I am probably doing something wrong in my XML files. I am new for this Spring - Hibernate staff so waiting for your help. Thanks.. This is the exception getting thrown ``` Stacktrace:] with root cause java.lang.IllegalStateException: Neither BindingResult nor plain target object for bean name 'category' available as request attribute at org.springframework.web.servlet.support.BindStatus.<init>(BindStatus.java:141) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getBindStatus(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:168) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getPropertyPath(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:188) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.getName(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:154) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.autogenerateId(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:141) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.resolveId(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:132) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.writeDefaultAttributes(AbstractDataBoundFormElementTag.java:116) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractHtmlElementTag.writeDefaultAttributes(AbstractHtmlElementTag.java:422) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.InputTag.writeTagContent(InputTag.java:142) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.AbstractFormTag.doStartTagInternal(AbstractFormTag.java:84) at org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.RequestContextAwareTag.doStartTag(RequestContextAwareTag.java:80) at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspx_meth_form_005finput_005f0(index_jsp.java:208) at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspx_meth_form_005fform_005f0(index_jsp.java:168) at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspService(index_jsp.java:100) at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:432) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:390) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:334) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter.doFilterInternal(OpenSessionInViewFilter.java:149) at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:108) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123) at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99) at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:953) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:408) at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1023) at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:310) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722) ```

Original source

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