Can I use @Requestparam annotation for a Post request?

Question

I have this controller method:

@PostMapping(         value = "/createleave",         params = {"start","end","hours","username"}) public void createLeave(@RequestParam(value = "start") String start,                         @RequestParam(value = "end") String end,                         @RequestParam(value = "hours") String hours,                         @RequestParam(value = "username") String username){     System.out.println("Entering createLeave " + start + " " + end + " " + hours + " " + username);     LeaveQuery newLeaveQuery = new LeaveQuery();     Account account = accountRepository.findByUsername(username);     newLeaveQuery.setAccount(account);     newLeaveQuery.setStartDate(new Date(Long.parseLong(start)));     newLeaveQuery.setEndDate(new Date(Long.parseLong(end)));     newLeaveQuery.setTotalHours(Integer.parseInt(hours));     leaveQueryRepository.save(newLeaveQuery); } 

However when I send a post request to this endpoint I get the following

"{"timestamp":1511444885321,"status":400,"error":"Bad Request","exception":"org.springframework.web.bind.UnsatisfiedServletRequestParameterException","message":"Parameter conditions \"start, end, hours, username\" not met for actual request parameters: ","path":"/api/createleave"}" 

When I remove the params argument from the @PostMapping annotation I get a more general error, it will say that it cannot find the first required parameter (start), while it really is being send together with the parameters end, hours and username.

how to get param in method post spring mvc?

I've read in this post that @RequestParam can only be used for get methods, but if I remove @RequestParam and stick with the params argument of the @PostMapping annotation it still doesn't work. I know I can use @RequestBody but I do not want to make a class just for those 4 parameters. Can anyone tell me how I can make this work?

Thank you

EDIT: I'm reading here https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/web/bind/annotation/RequestMapping.html#params-- that the argument params isn't exactly what I thought it was. It seems to be used as a condition. If a set of parameters match a value then the endpoint controller method will be activated.

Answer 1

Well, I think the answer by @Synch is fundamentally wrong, and not the question being asked.

1. First of all, I use @RequestParam in a lot of scenarios expecting either GET or POST HTTP messages and I'd like to say, that it works perfectly fine;
2. POST Message's data payload (body), which is referred to the most voted answer (again, by @Synch) is actually the text data, which can perfectly legally be paramname=paramvalue key-value mapping(s) alike (see POST Message Body types here);
3. docs.spring.io, an official source for Spring Documentation, clearly states, that:

   In Spring MVC, "request parameters" map to query parameters, form data, and parts in multipart requests.

So, I think the answer is YES, you can use @RequestParam annotation with @Controller class's method's parameter, as long as that method is request-mapped by @RequestMapping and you don't expect Object, this is perfectly legal and there's nothing wrong with it.