Bind indexed properties in Spring

You can use sping:bind to bind indexed properties. This only works with ordered collection such as List, but not Set.

<br /> <c:foreach items="${caseDetail.ingredientDtos}" var="ingredient" varstatus="rowId"> <br /> <td><c:out value="${ingredient.ingredientName}"></td><br /> <td><form:input cssclass="datePicker" path="ingredientDtos[${rowId.index}].baselineDate"></td> <br /> <form:hidden path="ingredientDtos[${rowId.index}].ingredientId"><br /> </c:forEach><br />

Here are a few things to note.

1. The syntax of "path=ingredientDtos[${rowId.index}].baselineDate" - this tells Spring to bind these to a list. If you use "c:out" instead of "form:input" or "form:hidden", then the field will not be submitted and bound
   
2. Only the fields listed here in this syntax are submitted and bound. For example, if ingredient has a property called "company" and it is not added here with form:input or form:hidden. Then you will find the property is null in onSubmit(). So the object might miss properties unless they are all listed and bound.