Form submission with Play

How to configure forms
Types of forms
There are two types of forms in Play - defined forms and dynamic forms. Defined forms have pre-defined fields and often map 1:1 to an object. All our defined forms are in the /app/forms directory. Dynamic forms are those that cannot be defined in advance - for example, we cannot generalize a single form for every block of questions, since each block has a different set of questions. Instead, we use a DynamicForm for blocks, which acts like a map of field names to values (see ApplicantProgramBlocksController#update).
Process for adding a defined form
1.Define an HTML form - the field name attributes must match the Play form method names exactly
2.Add a POJO under /app/forms with getters and setters for each field in the form. Note: the getter and setter names must exactly match the HTML input name
3.Bind the form in the controller like so:
// formFactory is a play.data.FormFactory, and request is a play.mvc.Http.Request
Form<MyPojoForm> formWrapper = formFactory.form(MyPojoForm.class).bindFromRequest(request);
​
if (formWrapper.hasErrors()) {
  // Add any error handling here
}
​
// Get an instance of your defined form
MyPojoForm form = formWrapper.get();
​
// Now you can use getters/setters
String myFieldValue = form.getMyField();
Using a DynamicForm
Essentially, a DynamicForm is a map of <fieldName, value> pairs. You can use it in a controller like so (assumes you have an HTML form):
// formFactory is a play.data.FormFactory, and request is a play.mvc.Http.Request
DynamicForm form = formFactory.form().bindFromRequest(request);
​
// Get a single value
String value = form.get("myFieldName");
​
// Get the entire map of fields to values
Map<String, String> dataMap = form.rawData();
Repeated fields
If you have a form field that is repeated (for example, a checkbox), the name attribute must end in square brackets. Example:
<input type="checkbox" name="applicant.kitchen.selections[]" value="toaster">
In a defined form, use a mutable List for setters and getters (example POJO with lists).
In a DynamicForm, the key will include an index, like so:
DynamicForm form = formFactory.form().bindFromRequest(request);
String firstValue = form.get("applicant.kitchen.selections[0]"); // returns "toaster"
Play documentation
For more information, see Java Forms with Play or Java Form Helpers​

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Last modified 8mo ago