spring mvc: cleanest way for more than one submit button?

Question

I have a a form and I'd like a next and back button inside it. What is the cleanest way to do this in spring mvc? Just give the input type submit a name and value and check for that in my controller?

Answer 1

If you use Spring 3, you can distinguish between controller methods using params attribute:

<input type = "submit" name = "next" value = "Next" />
<input type = "submit" name = "back" value = "Back" />

.

@RequestMapping(..., params = "next")
public ModelAndView next(...) { ... }

@RequestMapping(..., params = "back")
public ModelAndView back(...) { ... }

Answer 2

You could do that, yes. Alternatively, don't use true submit buttons. Instead, use vanilla HTML buttons, with attached javascript handlers which later the form's target, and then programmatically submit the form.

Which one is "cleaner" depends on your point of view.